Cats and Dogs
by hersheysmusicandtwilight
Summary: Guys! This is not something to get exited about! She almost dies withing the three seconds I'd known her! When I saved her she got pissed. Near death experiences plus an over protective werewolf plus a very stubborn teenager equals one crackhead cupid.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Okay, here are some things I need to get oput of the way. First, I don't own twilight or any of the characters, just the ones that I've created here. Second, for those of you who have already read this, yes, I rewrote this first chapter. Third, there is some minor cussing in here, but these are teenagers I'm writing about, here. They are going to cuss. I tried not to do it alot, in my defence. Ditto Embry's somewhat shady past. Fourth, REVEIW. REVEIW OR YOU SHALL DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH.**

**Just kiddng. But do reveiw though, I would love some constructive critisism.**

Cathryn's POV

Six years. Six years, and not one day less. That was how long it took me to discover all the freaks at my school, and befriend them. First grade to sixth grade. Six years of being left out, of not understanding jokes, of breaking down the air-tight walls that cliques had created in order to get the desired friends. Because really, who wants to have a bunch of boring friends when you are just the opposite of it? I'd just finished

my seventh grade year. That's it. One year. I got _one year _of friendship and happiness, and then we had to up and move?

I guess I had no one to blame but myself. I _was _the one who had wondered off that day while we were on vacation in Seattle three years ago. It wasn't my mother's fault that in her impassioned rush to find her only child, she met a man living there and fell so deeply in love with him that they had to go and get hitched.

On second thought, maybe it was my stepsibling's faults. Because, you know, Mom _did _try to do what was best for me. Bob moved down to Florida with his two kids, Mark and Lizzie. At the time, everything had seemed fine. It _was _fine. But then Mark and Lizzie went and got all homesick. Lizzie started failing and showing up at our house at three o'clock in the morning too drunk to even talk. And then Mark got into all these fights at school, and they both swore up and down that it was because they missed the gloomy and rainy hellhole that was Washington State.

So then we all had to move back up there. Not back to Seattle, because that wouldn't have been fair to me. According to my mother, I'd feel left out, like Mark and Lizzie did, and I'd get into trouble, like Mark and Lizzie did. According to my mom, all of these things could be stopped if we just completely started over. Don't see her logic? Good. Me neither.

The Olympic Peninsula. That was where we were moving. Right on the coast. Around a teeny town called Forks, and two Indian reservations called Makah and La Push. Mark was going to college in the fall, and Lizzie and I got to choose which school we wanted to go to. Both of us chose the one in La Push. God knows why Lizzie chose it, but I just wanted to go because of the cool name. _Quileute. _I'm sorry, but in my opinion, that was the only good thing about this whole mess. The name of the school.

Although, personally, I wouldn't have minded too much if they just home schooled us. As it was, they told me that I could either ride home with Lizzie-an idea that Lizzie was even more against than I was- or make a friend with as license that will drive me to and from school. How was I supposed to do that? I'd rather just walk. Or, Mom could make everything easier for me and take up home schooling.

Because, really. Wasn't it enough that I be forced to move across the country, from a place where it isn't unusual for there to be seventy degree Christmases, to a place that rained nonstop and occasionally had snowstorms in June? To throw a new school into the mix should be considered child abuse.

Apparently though, my parents disagreed. The way they saw it, we'd be moving there at the end of May, so we'd have three whole months to make friends and all that before school starts. Which was the biggest piece of crap I'd ever heard. Uh, hello? This was Me, remember? Miss Independent, loaded with sarcasm, attitude, and stubbornness? Not to mention so insane that even I knew it? How did they expect me to actually talk to random strangers before it was even necessary? And say _nice things? _

I tell you, they were living in a fantasy world.

I lazily put the suitcases in my bed, a knot the size of a bowling ball in my stomach. Sure, I had the best room. At the tippy top of our three story house, slanting at the ceiling, my own bathroom, the only rooms on the third floor. Bright Kelly Green, complete with a balcony and my own thermostat, which was a good thing, because I always seemed to be colder than every one else.

Still. In my opinion, it was all a trick. I'd been the one to throw a fit about moving. I'd been the one to where all black on the last day of school, to show that I was in mourning. For what? My social life, which was almost certainly coming to a painful and sickening end.

Like getting an awesome room could change any of that.

I flopped down next to my bags and stared upward. This was going to kill me. They would find my lifeless remains lying over the tearstains on my pillow after the first day of school in September. Maybe then the dictators I was forced to call my parents would see the error of their ways, and they would bury me back home in Florida, then move back their in order to be closer to their loving and wonderful daughter, whose death had been entirely their fault, uncaring of the whines and protests coming from Mark and Lizzie. Especially Lizzie.

If I was Lucky. Which I wouldn't be. I was never lucky. I had always thought that if you are an Aries, then your supposed to be luckier than all of the other star signs. Like, always winning bingo and never getting caught when you do bad things and stuff like that. I was an Aries. I was born on April Fools day, though, so maybe that was why.

God. This sucked.

_Ding, Dong._The ringing of the doorbell brought me back to earth. I trudged wearily down the stairs, trying to look as pitiful as possible, just in case anybody were watching.

It was Lizzie who answered the door. "Hello," She said uncertainly.

"Hi, we are the Gates; we live just down the road from here. We just wanted to bring you something, you know, welcome you to La Push."

"Oh. Right. Hang on a sec. MOM!!!" She yelled over her shoulder. I winced. I called my stepfather 'Bob', not 'Dad'. Why my darling stepsister didn't extend the same courtesy to my mother was beyond me.

My parents were at the door and welcoming the Gates in a second. My mom's mood had improved so greatly since meeting Bob. That was the sole reason I didn't try to break the marriage up. And it wasn't like there was anything wrong with Bob himself. Sure he was balding and a little plump and wore really thick glasses and ties so insane even I was embarrassed to look at them, but he was a good guy. And a lawyer, which brought in a pretty hefty income, in addition to my mother's. She was a doctor.

I could even handle Mark. He stumbled down the stairs, hair tousled and rubbing his eyes. Apparently he'd gone to sleep in the forty-five minutes we'd been here. The one and only thing he ever willingly did. Besides punching half the guys in Gainesville. He stopped at the bottom of the staircase, just behind me. He definitely had temper problems. But then, so did I.

It was Lizzie whom I didn't like. She was grouchy and spoiled and the biggest flirt I'd ever seen in my life. She leaned against the wall, sneering at the Gates daughter.

I felt suddenly protective of the poor girl. Yeah, she was probably the typical small town girl. Cheerleader. Gossiped all the time. Scared to death of sticking out. Her physical build supported my assumption. She was short and muscle toned, her jet black hair pulled back into a tight pony tale just above her crown, her bangs falling into her almond shaped eyes. Definitely the cheerleader type, and definitely not somebody I wanted to be friends with. Still though, it wasn't like she'd done anything to us. Yet. Lizzie could stand to chill just a little. Probably she was intimidated. She looked older than me, but younger than Lizzie, and much prettier than both of us.

"Cathryn," My mother said, grabbing my arm and pulling me over. "This is Leslie." The girl waved uncertainly. "She'll be starting high school this year." Older than me, but younger than my sister. I was right. "Why don't you show her your room and you two can talk." My mom had this huge goofy grin on her face, like she thought that we would become best friends by the end of the week. As if.

I sighed, but lead her up the two floors and into my room for my mother's benefit.

"Wow." Leslie said as we walked in. "Nice room."

"Yeah," I said tonelessly, sitting on top of one of my bags.

We sat there awkwardly for a moment, not looking at one another. Finally she said, "Sooo….you're new here."

I rolled my eyes. What an intelligent conversation starter. It wasn't even a _question. _"Yeah," I responded coolly.

More silence.

Before I could stop them, visions of the impending school year began running through my head. Would I be the topic of all gossip? Duh. This place was the smallest, most close knit, most boring town I had ever been to, and I was the new girl. Of course people would talk. Heck, people talked at my huge school in Gainesville. And where would I sit in lunch? Because I was not, under any circumstances, eating in the library. Or worse, the girl's bathroom. Most likely, I would end up with a bunch of girls who looked and acted exactly like this Leslie person, listening to them exchange diet ideas ad hair tips while keeping my head down and never uttering a word.

Joy. Oh, joy.

_Ding, Dong._I leapt up and raced back downstairs. The doorbell? Again? I could barely handle _one _irritating family, what was I supposed to do with two? If they had any kids….

I marched up to the door and answered it, scowl in place. Maybe if I looked unfriendly enough, they'd just say hi really quickly and leave….

"Hi! I'm…Keilly…." She faltered as she took in my expression. She too, looked older than me, maybe in Leslie's grade. She looked nicer, though. Somebody I could more easily get along with. Tall and plump, her white blonde hair pulled into low pigtails on either side of her face.

"Cathryn," I said dully, sticking out a hand. She took it, smiling tentatively.

"So…you want to come in or something?" I asked her. Please, please, please say no….

"Sure."

What did I tell you? Bad Luck.

"This is Leslie, "I told her after leading her up the stairs and into my room. Leslie had taken her shoes off and was lying on my bed, glaring at the ceiling exactly like I'd been doing moments before. She looked up at the mentioning of her name. When she saw Keilly, her face broke into a huge smile. When she smiled, her face looked totally different. Almost like some one I might be able to tolerate.

"Hey, Keills!" She said enthusiastically.

They knew each other. Of course.

I immediately assumed that Keilly was just like Leslie and that they were going to be immediately absorbed in their own conversation and I would be left out of the mix to listen to my iPod in piece. However, Keilly surprised me by talking adamantly to both me and Leslie, smoothing over Leslie's awkward and my weird with her own savvy sweetness. We covered about a zillion topics. Keilly's boyfriend, Seth Clearwater, apparently a total hunk. Colin, Leslie's crush, also seemingly gorgeous. Seth would be a senior, Colin a year behind him, and Keilly a year behind him. When I told them that I would be in eighth, they both showered me with details such as which teachers were crappiest, which electives not to take, and which cafeteria foods were the most inedible. They also mentioned a guy named Drew, who would be going into my grade.

"We should introduce you guys sometime." Leslie said.

"Yeah! He's going with Seth and me and Leslie and another friend of ours, Brady, to the movies tomorrow. You wanna come with?" Keilly asked.

Which was how I ended up spending my second day in Washington with a bunch of weird friends I hadn't made yet.

Naturally, I was really nervous. If I wanted to avoid being a total loser from now until the foreseeable future, this had to go well. And some of the people I would be with were more than three years older than me. Why hadn't I just made an excuse not to go? I did that all the time back in Gainesville. Granted, the excuses were more about academics than my social life, but still.

It was about one o'clock when an old SUV pulled up in front of my driveway. I went out the door hurriedly, trying to avoid anybody coming inside. My mom was just a little on the protective side, and she really didn't need to know about me going out with a bunch of strangers.

The back door opened, and a guy got out. I stopped walking for a moment in shock. Whatever I'd been expecting, it wasn't this. He was _huge._ I was tall, five seven, but this guy was at least a foot taller than me. I could see his muscles even through the shirt he was wearing. Was this Seth? He was definitely good looking. The man walked around to the front of the car and switched places with Keilly, who had been in the passenger's seat. She smiled when she saw me, and opened the door for me to get in.

"This is Seth," She said giving the driver a huge smile. He looked surprisingly similar to the first guy I'd seen. Were they brothers? He nodded vaguely in acknowledgement, but his eyes were on Keilly. I looked away quickly. The look they were giving each other…it felt private. Like I was intruding on something special, something sacred. I could see in just a few seconds that Seth loved Keilly more than anybody else. However, instead of being touched, like most girls would be, I just felt uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, and a little bit creeped out.

Thankfully though, Keilly continued the introductions, distracting me. "This is Brady," She said ruefully, gesturing to the man next to Seth who had gotten out earlier. "And you know Leslie of course, and this is Drew."

Drew was every bit as big as Seth and Brady were. He was supposed to be thirteen, like me, but he could have passed for somebody in his twenties.

I got in, scared to death. How could Keilly and Leslie stand them? They made me so nervous, like any one of them could snap my neck in two at any given moment. Which they probably could. The back seat was jam packed full of textbooks and snacks and sports equipment, so I was forced to sit in between Drew and Leslie. I shrank into Leslie a little bit, chastising myself the whole time.

I mean, seriously. They were just a couple of over sized teenagers. They shouldn't have bothered me. Leslie and Keilly obviously trusted them, so I should too. I forced myself to lean carelessly against the seat, smirking slightly. That was My Look. Confident, fearless, smart, not the kind of girl you wanted to mess with. The exact opposite of how I felt, but nobody had to know that.

However, much to my surprise, within about fifteen minutes of the hour long drive to Port Angeles where we would see the movie, My Look became real. It was so easy being with all of them. Brady, for example, was a giant cheese head. He flirted shamelessly with Leslie and I the whole time, seeming to know that Keilly was untouchable. Seth and Drew punched him several times throughout the drive, but the idiot barely seemed to even notice. Drew was like a milder version of Brady, playful, but knowing his limits. He was funny, and I was laughing almost the entire time. Seth seemed to like anything Keilly liked, and therefore was really nice to me. But I had a feeling that he would have been friendly anyway. He just seemed like a sweetheart. So he was all right for Leslie, even if he wasn't _my _type.

Not that there weren't downsides. I was absolutely smooshed. There were four people in a seat that only held three. I was also sweating the whole time, due to Seth's car being without air conditioning and Drew's skin being way hot. Though when I asked him if he had a fever, he said he felt fine.

I also had no idea about anything they were talking about. I had to ask for clarifications a lot more often than I would have like to, but nobody seemed to mind. Then when we got to the movie, it totally sucked. It was the latest thriller, and the special effects were horrible. Instead of screaming like everybody else, we mostly made fun of it the whole time. Except for Keilly, who hid her face in Seth's chest, shrieking. Seth seemed to enjoy this. Plus the guys were huge popcorn hogs. I didn't know it was even possible for three guys to eat so much. They were at the concession stand getting refills more often than they were in the theater.

When it was over, Seth drove us back to the rez, but instead of taking us all home, he drove us to a coffee shop where he and Brady and Drew proceeded to rob the place of all food. Leslie and Keilly and I sipped our frapichinoes and made fun of them.

Was I actually having fun?

At least until Keilly nodded off in Seth's lap. That was, apparently, the signal that it was getting late. For Seth, anyway. It was weird how every little emotion Keilly felt seemed to be doubled on Seth. Like he knew her better than she knew herself. And he seemed to worry at the slightest hint of her discomfort. So, so weird.

Which was probably a good thing, seeing as I was a giant freak myself.

Every day after that I was with Keilly or Leslie or Drew or Seth or Brady or some combination of the five. It was amazing how well we all got a long. I was happy around them, and it was easy to forget about the constant cover of clouds and rain, and Lizzie's moodiness, and the impending school year in which I would know absolutely NO ONE but Drew. He told me that we could go over to the high school during lunch though, so that helped.

I also went to dance camp, which was amazing. I hadn't danced since I'd found out that I'd be moving here, almost six months ago. It felt great to get moving again.

I'd been right about Leslie being very fit. That summer, she criticized every unhealthy bite Keilly and I took. Keilly kept eating, unashamed, but I slowly gave up junk food and took up jogging with Leslie every night.

I made some cash by babysitting another neighbor, two little girls. One was eight, and her name was Blaire. The other was five. She was Claire, and my favorite of the two. She was five, and had what was quite possibly the wildest tangle of curls I'd ever seen, but majorly shy. The first time I babysat, I thought she was one of those weirdoes that didn't speak for the first time until they were like seven. But when she finally did open her mouth, she was a pretty cool kid.

What was even cooler, however, was that her family had a friend that was at their house ninety nine percent of the time, and he very rarely wore a shirt. Although he kind of ruined it when he spoke, being one of the most obnoxious people I'd ever met. Still, we got along all right. Plus, the guy worshipped Claire.

However, this is still me we are talking about. And me means bad luck. So of course something had to change.

I just wasn't expecting it to be so drastic.

Chapter 2 Upside Down Running- David Archuleta

Embry's POV

Okay. So here's the thing: I'm a werewolf. A werewolf who's two bets friends both have a good chance of being his half brother. A werewolf who's mom doesn't know about what I am and so takes my disappearing every night as a sign of her 'failure as a parent'. A werewolf who is trying to somehow make it through college without angering Sam. Not an easy feat, let me tell you, especially when I got there on a soccer scholarship.

I mean, you're supposed to work hard when you play a sport. And most people have to, if they want to avoid being kicked off the team. But I don't have that problem. I'm the guy looking around at the other guys making sure he's not waaaaay ahead of them. I'm kicking the ball as gently as possible as to not break the goal or any of my teammates. I'm trying to emphasize with the ref because I know if I get mad at him I will become a giant dog and people will come for me in the night with flaming torches and pitchforks like they did to Frankenstein.

And hey, it could be worse. I could be _bad _at soccer. If I were in a parallel universe. Because I was good at it even when I was a weak and uncoordinated human. And a guy's got to make sacrifices if he wants a good job. I was studying to become a chemical engineer, with photography on the side. It turns out that a really good way to irritate a pack of werewolves is to take pictures of them. And occasionally I actually get a decent shot.

Plus there's the whole muscle thing. And being physically like twenty five. No zits! I looked around now and saw guys breaking a sweat trying to talk to girls who'd fallen all over themselves to get at me. And no, that wasn't my ego. It was a fact. It was weird to me now, but I used to be so awkward around girls. Now…lets just say I'm never lonely at parties and bars.

Speaking of, I have a new girlfriend. Kayla. I wasn't actually aware of that fact until she called me up the other day going on and on about what an _amazing _night we had together. We went on a date, and I came out of it sure that she was the most annoying creature I'd ever met. How some one so dumb could talk so much was beyond me.

She was taking me to Blockbuster shortly so we could rent a movie to whach together.

If it ever occurs to me to show up.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 3 Butterflies

Cathryn's POV

"Hello?" I'd checked the caller id, so I knew it was Leslie, but due to my mother drilling it into my brain when I answered the phone as a kid caused me to answer the phone with a crisp and polite "Hello?" Every. Single. Time.

"Cat, its me. Keilly wants you to rent PS I Love You, and I want John Tucker Must Die." We were having a sleepover that night at my place to cry about the school year beginning.

"Okay," I said absentmindedly. Lizzie was supposed to be driving me home from art and helping me pick out the movies I wanted. However, that was not what she was doing. Instead, she was giving me a much undeserved lecture about how if I took more than ten minutes she was leaving me.

"Hey, Cat. Don't get any kind of horror movie, ok? I'm serious, they scare me and Keilly to death."

"Uh, Les?" That's kind of the point."

"Cathryn!"

"Fine, fine. I'll be good." I promised. One missed call wasn't that scary….

I got out of the car. "Bye, now." I said sweetly to both Leslie and Lizzie, closing the door and hanging up the phone.

Once inside, I went straight to the horror section. Keilly and Leslie were almost old enough to drive, they needed to grow up. Then I got PS I Love You, quite possibly the most puke inducing movie I had ever seen, then….

I saw him.

It was his girlfriend that came in first. She was even taller than me and had blonde highlights in her jet black hair. Her paid-for breasts were hanging skankily out of her lace tank top. Definitely the marrying kind. Not. She was laughing hysterically and practically dragging him in with her. That was all I'd really registered before my eyes became glued to the biggest man I had ever seen.

Really. Like, ever. The guy had to duck to get in. Seth was six nine, and this guy towered over him. I came up to about his lower chest. And the muscles. His arm was as thick as my waist. He was shirtless, too, showing off a beautiful set of washboard abs.

But I hadn't spent the summer with guys like Brady and learned nothing. No, the part that scared me was his face. He was glaring at the floor, like it had done him some sort of personal offence by existing. His features looked very at home in this position, like they wore the expression a lot. His eyes, though huge and potentially heart-stopping, were deep and empty. Like dark tunnels. His girlfriend said something, and the look he gave her was one of complete and utter disgust. Total opposite of the way Seth Looked at Keilly.

I made my way quickly over to the checkout counter, trying not to draw attention to myself.

So naturally, the first thing I did was trip over him.

Chapter 4 Right side Up On the Way Down- Ryan Cabrera

Embry's POV

"Oof," I felt somebody fall into me. I caught whoever it was by instinct, looking down in irritation.

Bright green eyes stared up at me in shock.

I felt an overpowering heat in the center of my chest. It grew quickly, leaking into my bloodstream and overpowering everything in its path. Much like phasing.

But not at all like phasing.

When I'd phased for the first time, I'd felt alone and angry and terrified and invaded and hopelessly confused. Now I'd never been so sure of anything in my life.

Because I _saw. _

I saw the center of the universe, the reason I'd been born, the reason earth existed. I understood now. My whole world shifted, gravity shifted, onto the little girl in my arms.

She was freakin gorgeous. Way better looking than any of the bimbos I'd been with over the years. Smooth creamy skin, nose dusted with golden freckles, bright green eyes framed by thick dark lashes. Long auburn hair falling smoothly over her shoulders and down her back. Tall-for a human- and very slender, like a model. And she was all mine.

Well, not yet, but she would be eventually.

"Oh! Crap!" She gasped, pulling away from me and righting herself quickly. I was very conscious of my arms letting her go. Her being away from me, even a little bit, felt unnatural. Like in the beginning, when it was still hard for me to change shape. It didn't _hurt, _exactly, but….

"I'm so sorry," She said hurriedly, backing away. "I didn't see- I didn't mean-"

"Oh, no, its fine." I said dazedly. She was scared of me. This was not a big shocker, what with my being roughly the size of sasquach, but it still sucked.

"Kay," She smiled nervously, causing my heart to skip a beat, before turning to leave.

Chapter 5 Guardian Angel

Cathryn's POV

I checked out the movies and got out of the store as fast as I could. How embarrassing. How do you just fall over somebody like that? He must have thought I was an idiot. Or blind. Or both. Not only that, but the man was the most terrifying mutant I'd ever seen.

I crossed the street, and was almost to the car when I remembered.

John Tucker Must Die.

Dang it. Now I was going to go _back _to the stupid place and check that one out too. If there was any doubt in his mind that I was a total genius at this point, there wouldn't be after that. For some reason, this bothered me. Both him realizing my stupidity and never seeing him again.

I was halfway across the street when I heard it.

The squealing of tires against the asphalt. I turned my head just in time to a car speeding towards me. The driver was talking on the phone and had evidently not seen me until only seconds before. Maybe he was trying to turn. It didn't matter. It was too late. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact.

It came, but not from the direction I expected. Long arms wrapped around my waist and knocked me out of the way, so that I was back on the other side of the street and next to my sister's car. I was dimly aware of Lizzie getting out and going nuts and offering to pay whoever it was that saved me. However, I wasn't really paying attention. My eyes were on the car that had almost hit me. The stupid driver hadn't even stopped to make sure that I was okay. Just turned the corner and driven out of sight.

What. An. Asshole.

"Hey! Are you all right?" An anxious voice broke through my pissed off haze. I looked up into warm brown eyes. Sweet, like a puppy's. Nothing like the soulless ones I'd been looking into only seconds before on the exact same face.

"Yeah," I said uncertainly.

"Jesus, is it really that hard for you to cross the street without causing some sort of incident? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" He asked me angrily.

Okay, so, obviously his personality hadn't changed as much as his eyes.

"Excuse me?" I put a hand on my hip. "If you're so bent out of shape about rescuing me, why'd you do it? I would have been fine without your help." Not entirely true, but whatever.

He snorted skeptically.

Lizzie, seeming to realize that nobody was paying any attention to her jabbering, spoke up in a slightly calmer tone. "What's your name?" She asked.

What, I ask you, did that have to do with the present conversation?

"Embry, " He said, still scowling at me. Like it was my fault I'd almost become road kill.

"Embry," Lizzie echoed. "Awesome name. That was amazing, what you just did. Thanks so much."

Yeah, really awesome. Awesomely stupid. I could not believe what was happening. Only MY SITSTER would think to flirt when her sister had just had a near death experience.

Although me and near death experiences weren't exactly strangers. She was probably used to it by now.

"Yeah," Embry responded shortly, "Just be careful, er…."

"Oh, I'm Lizzie, and this is my sister Cathryn." Lizzie said quickly.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 6 Misfire

Embry's POV

As soon as they'd driven away, Kayla emerged from the store.

"OhmygodEmbrythatwassobrave-"

"Whatever. We're done." I wouldn't have been able to understand a word she's said even if she wasn't talking a mile a minute. I had more important things to think about.

I walked away, faster than was natural for a human to walk. I didn't care. I needed the safe cover of the trees. I needed to run. As soon as I'd gotten to the forest, I started running. Normal humans couldn't run like this. Normal humans got tired. It was one of the things I loved about what I was.

I stopped and took off my cutoffs quickly. I didn't have time to hang around human. I needed to talk to Jacob. Or Quil. Or Seth. Or some one from Sam's pack. Some one who had imprinted. Because Cathryn almost getting smeared on the road-I winced- had given me some things to think about. That, and the way she'd acted after I saved her.

_I _knew that I'd imprinted. _I _knew that already I loved her more than anybody could even fathom. _I _knew that we were perfect together in every possible way, that we were designed specifically for each other. _I _knew that I needed her; I could feel that even now, after being apart for just a few minutes. _I _knew that from here on out, almost getting run over by a truck would seem safe to her. But _she _knew absolutely nothing, and she could choose not to take any of it.

It scared me to even consider it, but it was true.

There were so many things that could go wrong.

What if she freaked out when she found out that I was a werewolf? What if she hated me for it, saw me as a monster? What if she thought that I was some sort of sick masochist for imprinting on her? What if I got angry, like Sam, and nearly killed her? What if she thought the whole thing was fine? So fine, that she spent all her time with one of the Packs or the Cullens, and she got hurt? What if she stubbed her toe and got a bacterial infection? What if she went cliff diving and drowned? Or hit her head on a rock? Or got stung by a poisonous jellyfish? Or got attacked by a bear? Or a mountain lion? Or a wolf? A real one, I mean. Not us wannabees.

I shook my head, trying to calm down. This Cathryn kid was going to make me gray before we'd even said two civil words to each other.

It took me a moment to focus enough to change shape. And when I did, I sincerely wished I hadn't. My head was a full house.

_Hey man. What's…._ Jacob started. His voice trailed off as he and the others absorbed what had happened. Their shock was so pronounced it was wordless. They all had thought that I was alone.

_!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

At least, at first it was wordless.

_Awww, man! We're all alone now, Collin! _Brady thought. But he was kidding. He was sickeningly happy for me just like the others.

_How sweet. Our little Embry's growing up. _Leah teased. She had gotten amazingly nicer since leaving Sam's pack.

_She got hit by a car? Wicked awesome. _Quil. The idiot.

_Guys! This is not something to get exited about. She almost died within the three seconds I'd known her. When I saved her she got pissed. Near death experiences plus an over protective werewolf plus a very stubborn teenager equals one crack head cupid. Seriously, she is like the last person I should have fallen for. _I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain why this was not a good thing. Of course, they all saw through me.

_Oh, suck it. Imprinting was the best thing that had ever happened to me. _Jacob thought.

_Yeah. To you. _But when you aren't head over heels for a girl that will never love you, its pretty aweful.

_But this is good. You need her. She needs you. You guys are better people now. _Sometimes I wished I could just live in Seth's head all the time. It was always so happy there. Sort of like mine used to be. Sort of like all of ours used to be.

_For the record, it would get really annoying if you were in my head full time. _Seth thought jokingly. See? Happy.

_Plus, getting all freaked out about it isn't going to help anything. Going into denial is just going to make it harder when you try to stay away from her. You're all hers now. _That was Sam, speaking through Jacob's head. Apparently, Jake had told our other brothers what had happened without us noticing.

_So put your big girl panties on and deal with it. _Leah had zero sympathy for me. She, like her brother, saw imprinting as a good thing.

_You guys. She almost died._

_Yeah. You mentioned that a couple of times. _

_Hey. Wait. You said her name was Cathryn? _Drew thought.

_Yeah._

_What's she look like?_

_Reddish brown hair, amazing body, beautiful green eyes…._

_Whoa. Dude. Brady, Drew, we know her. _Seth was shell-shocked.

_Really. I had no idea._

_What? Serious? _For the first time, I felt like this might not end badly. If she was already invested in us, it would be harder for her to leave.

_Yeah. She's like our best human friend. You know, her and Leslie and Cocoa. She's kind of like Cocoa, but with less mean and more attitude._

_Mmm-hmm. I got an earful of that when I saved her ass._

_She doesn't like feeling helpless. _Seth defended her.

_But she is helpless._

_Not the point._

_She's really tough. You'll have to get really close to her if you want her to..you know. Accept you. Accept all of us. _Drew thought, wary. He'd seen Cathryn angry before, and it was not an experience he wanted to relive.

_Look, there's a council meeting tomorrow night, right? So we'll get Keilly to take Cathryn. I'll bring Nessie. Cathryn can hang out with Embry, and she'll get a clue about werewolves._

_You just want an excuse to be with Nessie._

_So?_

I kicked at the rocks with my foot, concentrating very hard on the way the colors glittered in the setting sunlight. One of the stones was the exact same shade of green as her eyes.

She was late.

Well, not _late_, technically, seeing as half of the people who were supposed to be here hadn't arrived yet, and I had never gotten a confirmation that she was coming at all. Still, though. I had gotten here, and that was late enough for me. It had been twenty seven hours since I'd last seen her. The longest, most horrible twenty seven hours of my life. Werewolves were not supposed to go more than a day without seeing their imprint. Now I knew why.

I felt a sort of…pull to be near her. I couldn't concentrate on anything. It was like I was seeing everything in black and white. Nothing was cool, nothing was funny, everything sucked. I missed her voice, her eyes, the way she gestured all wildly when she spoke. During the few hours of sleep I'd had last night I'd had a dream about her kidnapping. Which had scared me so bad that I had to trace her scent- very sweet, sort of citrusy- all the way to her house, which was HUGE, and search for her heartbeat to make sure she was okay.

I disgust myself.

When I heard her laugh in the distance, mingled with Keilly's, it was like an iron band being released from around my chest. Everything _relaxed. _I turned my head expectantly towards the direction of her voice.

Chapter 7 Who Knew?

Cathryn's POV

"Keilly," I hissed, grabbing her arm. "That's him. The guy who kept me from becoming a road pizza yesterday."

"Oh. Really?" She asked vaguely, following my gaze. "I know that guy. He's a little weird, but nice enough. And really cute. You know. Next to Seth, I mean."

"And really full of himself." I muttered under my breath.

Keilly rolled her eyes.

I guess at this point I couldn't really blame her. All night she and Leslie had had to listen to me complain about the guy who seemed to think that because he'd saved my life, I owed him a lifetime of servitude. I mean, I guess I did, but he had better not hold his breath. The guy irritated me. He'd saved me, then acted as if he actually cared whether I lived or died, not like he'd saved me because of instinct, or because he was a Christian and it was the right thing to do. Which was, I was sure, his reason behind saving me. Instinct or religion or something else that had nothing to do with me as an individual. But that wasn't the way he'd seemed. He acted like I owed it to him to be safe. Like there was some sort of rule that I was breaking.

As we approached the campfire, Seth got up and went straight to Keilly, closing the distance between them in two long strides. He took her face up in her hands and kissed her full on the mouth. I looked away, trying not to gag. It was hard, being best friends with people like Leslie and Keilly. One of them had a boyfriend that was obviously made for her, and the other one wasn't truly happy unless she was spying on her crush, with whom she was so in love that she was afraid to even let him see her, for fear of rejection.

Me? I had a poodle named Papaya.

The place was full of older guys, most of whom I'd never seen before. The exceptions being Embry and Quil and Drew and Brady. And the latters were playing soccer. I looked around for some place to sit, trying to appear subtle.

"Hey. You're still alive!" I glanced towards the voice. Embry was leaning casually against a log and grinning at me. I marched past him, intending to sit with Seth and Keilly. Make out session or not. But, as usual, things didn't happen as planned. A very warm, very big, and very strong hand grabbed my wrist and yanked me backwards. I landed in a heap at his feet.

"Jerk," I muttered, extracting a stone from my hair.

He laughed easily. Something about him seemed different. Lighter…happier. "Why haven't I seen you around before?" He asked me.

"I just moved here from Florida." I told him, "And I wish I were there now."

"Florida," He repeated. For some reason, this seemed to bother him a little. "That's…far."

I clapped. "Very good!"

"Why'd you move?" Embry persisted, ignoring my jibe.

"My mom married a guy who lived in Seattle. He has two kids. You met one of them yesterday."

"Lizzie, right?"

"I'm not giving you her number," I told him. "You are bad news. I can already tell."

"You have no idea," He muttered under his breath.

"What?" I sat up a little straighter.

"Nothing. So…your dad doesn't mind you living so far away?"

"My dad might. But I wouldn't know, seeing as he died when I was seven."

"Oh, crap!" Embry looked horrified. "I… I'm so sorry."

"Chill." I said impatiently. "I can't even remember the guy."

"My dad was never around," He offered. "If that helps."

"Wonder why he left?" I asked sarcastically. But I smiled, so he would know that I was kidding.

Embry rolled his eyes. "Is sarcasm your one and only flavor?"

"No. There's also bitchy, rude, arrogant, weird, psychotic…."

"You sound like an absolutely horrible person." Embry informed me. Good. Then maybe he'd let me talk to somebody else.

It was then that Claire arrived, tugging on the hand of a very pregnant woman with scars raking down one side of her body who was with yet another giant. "Kitty!" She squealed, letting go of the woman and running up to me. "Quil said you were gonna come, but I didn't believe him."

"Why not, Clairedy-Cat?" I asked, pulling her into my lap.

"You never came afor. But Quil said you was coming cause of Embury."

I looked behind me at "Embury". He was making a very rude hand gesture at Quil, who was determinedly avoiding his gaze. I pulled Claire closer so she wouldn't see. "Embry!" I scolded from behind her mass of curls. "There are children in the vicinity!"

"Oh, that's right." He said. "So sorry for corrupting your youthful innocence, _Kitty." _He was getting me back for clapping. Huh. So he _did _have a spine.

I glared at him as I gently lifted Claire from my lap and went to sit with Quil and the couple that had brought Claire. Embry sighed and went over to where some of the other guys were playing soccer.

Chapter 8 Jigsaw

Embry's POV

Soccer, as you may have figured out by now, is My Sport. I was always good at it, even as a human. When I became…not so human, the fun was kind of sucked out of it, what with there being no challenge whatsoever. But I still loved it. And when I played with the other werewolves or vampires, the game got good again. I was still the best, but it was a title that I had to fight for. Now though, I was distracted. Maybe not as good as I would have been, although my team still kicked butt.

Because as I'd gotten to know her better, I'd been mentally listing all of Cathryn's characteristics. Sarcastic, blunt, cocky, absentminded in the extreme, brave, strong-mentally, at least-, stubborn, and a little crazy. The shirt she was wearing betrayed the fact that she was a dancer, and a good one. I thought that I had her basic personality type down pat.

Then Claire came.

Something about the way she looked at Cathryn, the way she'd so willingly went into her arms. The fact that she and Cathryn even knew each other. How tolerant Cathryn had been about Claire calling her "Kitty". She didn't like me showing people the finger when she was around. Maybe Claire was the exception, but was Cathryn…_maternal? _Good with kids? Somewhere underneath all the toughness was there actually a heart?

That did not go with the big picture.

Although it was of some comfort to me. If she had a soft side-sort of- then maybe she wouldn't shoot me when I told her about imprinting. Not that I planned on doing that any time soon. The girl couldn't even drive yet. She was way too young to be in that sort of relationship. For now I'd be a big brother to her, like Jacob and Quil were to their imprints. A really good friend.

When, though, was I going to tell her? Because she wasn't _that _young. Soon she would start dating, and I wasn't sure I could handle watching her going around and being with other guys. Who didn't deserve her. Who would hurt her, even if she didn't let on like they had. Who would never feel the way I felt towards her.

But the thing was, I was scared. Yes, I admit it. I find the person I'm meant to spend the rest of my life with, and I'm scared of her. Or what would happen to her. To us. Afraid she'd get hurt. Afraid she would get _killed_. Afraid she'd find some other guy that she liked more than me. Afraid that she wouldn't want any part of the life I lived. The supernatural world.

What the worst thing was, however, was that it seemed pretty likely that one of these things would actually happen. She wouldn't be as willing as the other imprints, I could see that. It didn't matter who he was, she wasn't going to go around hurting over some guy. She wasn't going to put up with crap. She wasn't going to sit back and watch while I did dangerous-but admittedly awesome-things.

Which left me with this: Nothing to work with.

Chapter 9 Sa-_wooooooooooon_

Cathryn's POV

"So how do you know Embry?" Emily asked casually. Sam, her husband, had gone to play soccer with the others. Quil had become incapable of adult-speak the second he'd seen Claire. The two of them were currently playing tic-tac-toe by the shore, where the sand was. Which left me with Emily, Claire's Aunt.

"Uh…" How do you explain to a pregnant lady that the day before you were almost killed? "He kind of kept me from being…run over."

"Oh! Wow!" She gasped. "I…guess that explains it."

"What?"

"You know," Emily waved her hand carelessly. "I bet Embry wasn't too happy about you almost kicking the bucket. He probably yelled."

"Yeah…." How did she know that? And what did that explain?

"Which is why you aren't, like, completely in love with him yet."

Okay. Her hormones were apparently more jazzed up than I thought. "What now?"

"Oh come on. The guy is beautiful. I mean, all of them are, but…You should see the way all those girls in bikinis look at him when we all go to the beach."

"We are at the beach, honey."

"During tourist season. In the daytime. This doesn't count." She said impatiently. "I mean, when I saw you with him, I saw a _little _swoon maybe, but with most its like…SA-_WOOON. _We're talking major droolage here."

"Speaking of droolage…" Quil hinted from the ocean. How had he heard that from all the way over there?

Emily rolled her eyes. "Oh, all right. Sam!" She called to her husband, "Start grilling the hot dogs, will you?"

About five hundred hot dogs later, Embry, Quil, Sam, and all the other guys were laying on the rocks, rubbing their stomachs contentedly.

Never in my life had I seen one individual eat so much. I counted how many Embry ate. Seventeen hot dogs in one sitting. And, according to Emily and even Claire, this was _normal. _

I laid down next to Embry and closed my eyes, listening to the conversation around me. Seth, Keilly, Brady, Drew, and the boy whose name I learned was Collin-Leslie was right, the guy should be a male model. Beauty such as that shouldn't be limited to only a few pairs of eyes, it wasn't fair to the rest of the world-were all sitting in a tightly knit group, heads together, whispering about something I didn't care about. Probably. Emily and Sam were arguing quietly about what to name their unborn child. There was a couple a ways away sleeping, and another laughing hysterically about something a boy whose name I didn't know said.

There was also Jacob and Renesmee, but I tried to block them out. All night Renesmee had been sending me furtive looks, like she didn't trust me. With every rude remark her face had become more and more disgruntled. She, for whatever reason, didn't like me. At all. I didn't really care though. She could kiss my butt. As could the girl with multiple facial peircings who had been hanging out with Collin all night. If she was dating him, she'd better make room for competition.

"What are you thinking about?" Embry murmured.

"The girl with the lip ring." I whispered back. Normally I would have been weirded out by such a personal question, but Embry had been more or less interviewing me the whole night. I was used to it at this point.

"Oh yeah. The chick who is living on Collin's couch."

"What?!" I asked sharply, sitting up.

"Chill, Cat. Just friends. She's been having some problems with her mom, and Collin isn't assertive enough to say no."

"I can't imagine not being assertive." I said, leaning back down.

Embry chuckled. "I've noticed."

Suddenly, the atmosphere around the campfire changed. The sleeping couple was rudely awoken by Jacob, who threw his shoe at them. Sam and Emily shut up about names. One of the girls, Rachel, I think, pulled out a notebook and pencil and turned expectantly towards an old man in a wheelchair. I liked him, I thought. He had an easy smile.

Embry tensed. "Come on." He whispered. "I'll take you home."

"I don't want to leave." I hissed. "And how do you know where I live?"

"You can direct me." He picked me up and started to carry me to where he was parked a few miles away, but not before Emily whispered in my ear. "You should have seen you're face. _Sa-woooon."_

Well, honestly. How many guys do you know that can carry a hundred and ten pound girl two miles and not even seem tired?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 10 Careful

Embry's POV

I was bored.

You would think, wouldn't you, that when you are bored, you would be up for anything? Like if somebody asked if anybody would pick the lint off their shirt, you would jump at the opportunity? But it seemed like the border I got, the less I wanted to do. And it wasn't even ten o'clock yet.

It was Saturday. I didn't have patrol. I had imprinted, so it wasn't like I would get any sort of thrill from going up to Port Angles. Practicing soccer was of no use whatsoever. Moon pie was somewhere in the neighborhood, chasing a cat or whatever.

I sat down on the couch and glared at the TV for a moment. Maybe if I stared at it long enough, it would turn on and be something that I was halfway interested in watching.

Nothing happened.

I took out my cell phone and fiddled with it for a moment, debating. I could always get her number from Seth….

He answered on the fourth ring.

"Hey Embry. What's up?" He asked cheerfully.

"I was wondering if you had Cathryn's phone number."

"Oh," He laughed. "Right. Uh, sure."

About ten seconds later I was dialing her phone number.

"Who the heck is this?" She murmured sleepily.

"Embry. Were you asleep?"

"How'd you get my number?" She demanded, ignoring my question.

"From Seth. Did I wake you up?" I persisted.

"Yeah, you did. You ruined my beauty sleep."

"Like you need that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Crap. I'd said that out loud.

"It means that compared to all the girls I've dated, you're gorgeous." It was a half-truth. Compared to all the girls I'd ever _seen, _she was gorgeous.

"No," She disagreed. "Your girlfriend from the store was amazing looking."

"Was not. And she isn't my girlfriend. Anymore. I dumped her like two seconds after saving a life."

"If you keep going back to that because you're looking for some gratitude, you're never going to get it."

"So you would rather I have let you die."

"It would have saved me from ever meeting you." She pointed out.

"Some day you are going to say something like that to somebody, and they'll be emotionally unstable, and they will kill you for it." I told her.

"I'm terrified."

"You should be. I never lie."

"Then tell me why you were so desperate to get me away from the beach last night."

I probably should have lied. I probably should have joked around, told her that I didn't want to cause our friends any more annoyance by having her be there. But the thing was, lying to your imprint was really, really hard. And had been dumb of me to have not let her hear the legends in the first place. I'd panicked. But letting her hear them, planting the _idea _in her head before introducing her to the reality would be a much less traumatic translation.

So I told her..

Not _everything, _obviously. That would not have gone over well. I left out the parts about the Cullens, and the treaty, and everything that had even the tiniest thing to do with imprints. And, of course, the part about it all being true. But I told her everything else. The spirit warriors, the werewolves, the vampires, the not aging.

To my surprise, she was interested. She didn't even _pretend _not to care. She asked questions and commented like a normal person. She didn't even use sarcasm. I was in shock. Gradually though, that subject faded and was replaced with more normal talk, such as her impending school year. Or my already started school year. She told me everything that there was to know about Florida, and listed all the reasons why it was better than here. I explained to her about all the people at the council meeting that she didn't know.

When we finally hung up, I was amazed by what time it was.

We had been on the phone for five hours.

Chapter 11 First Day

Cathryn's POV

I grinned in relief when I saw Embry's car pull up to the school. The day before had been spent with Lelsie and Keilly, shopping for clothes to wear today, with one quick phone call from Embry telling me that Seth had wanted him to pick me up and take me home from school. I was wearing a dark denim mini skirt with a simple black fitted top. Not that the way I looked had helped at all.

This had been, by far, the worst first day of school I'd ever had. Drew was in exactly none of my classes, and the only time I got to see him and the others was during lunch when Drew had skateboarded over to the high school with me riding piggyback. I didn't like him carrying me. I would have to learn soon.

I got in the car. Embry grinned at me.

"So? Still hate this place?" He asked me.

"Uh, Yeah. These people suck."

"Thanks so much."

"Is there something wrong with Drew?"

"No. Why?"

"Because when people saw me leave with him at lunch, they avoided me like the plague. Not that they weren't avoiding me like the plague anyway, but…."

"Listen." He interrupted. "Quil, Jacob, Renesmee, Keilly, Seth, and Sam are all going to Emily's restaurant tonight to celebrate you guys not dying today. You know, that bar and grill place. You can come."

"Oh, Joy," I rolled my eyes. What made him think that I could possibly enjoy stuffing my face with saturated fats while listening to guys talk about football and girls talk about clothes?

"Fine. Don't. Be alone." Embry said carelessly.

Crap. I was a sucker for reverse psychology.

"Tell Seth to pick me up." I grumbled.

Seriously. Why me?

I mean, its not like I don't already have enough to deal with, considering the state of my middle school social life, my lack of vehicle or even learner's permanent, being unable to eat anything unhealthy due to Lelsie lecturing me on the amount of calories and fats in a cheeseburger. I haven't eaten one of those since May. Its September. And the worst part was, her theory was proven correct. Not that, you know, it wasn't proven correct _anyway_; I know that eating bad food and not exercising makes you flubby.

But now it had happened to _me. _I'd lost twenty pounds.

So what was I supposed to eat?

At the place though, when I'd complained about this to Embry, he'd just rolled his eyes and asked the waitress to bring me something with fruits and vegetables that wasn't fried. He knew her personally; apparently he worked there.

Sometimes I think that boys are from a different planet.

Like if I'd told something like that to Keilly, she would have complained about it with me, then we would have ended up purging on a hot fudge Sunday while we talked about how fat it would make us.

Embry, though, he just tells the waitress to get me what I want.

I mean, who does that?

Its just too simple.

However, I'm not writing about this occurrence because of the food there. Something of consequence did actually happen.

"Caffin. Paff da raws," Quil told me from across the table, his mouth full of who knew what. I stared at him blankly.

He swallowed noisily. "I said, Pass the rolls."

More food. Of course.

Emily, who had taken off for the night, hit him on the head indulgently. "You know, at this diner, we have something called a _main course._ You should try it."

"Oh, I'm going to," Quil assured her before shoving a roll in his mouth, all in one bite.

Renesmee smiled slightly and looked down. She hadn't touched anything, not even her drink. She hadn't eaten anything at the campfire either. I wondered vaguely if she was anorexic. She didn't look it, though. She was thin, but soft. Not skinny, not bony. Of course, her thick bronze curls could just be hiding it. I'd never seen hair that long. She was beautiful. Even I couldn't deny that.

For some reason, her not liking me bothered me a little. Maybe because she couldn't have been older than ten years old. Or because she didn't know me at all. Either way, it was unnerving. I was used to not caring what people thought, to hearing about somebody trashing me and laughing to myself. But with Renesmee…I don't know. There was this weird desire to please her, to make her happy. She was so sweet to every body else. Except that chick with the lip ring. Cocoa. Renesmee didn't seem to like her all that much either. She was here again today, scowling and tearing her role into tiny pieces.

Leslie could so take her.

Just then, the door at the front of the restaurant opened. A guy walked in with his parents. I'd seen him before, earlier that day, in my homeroom. I hadn't really noticed him before, but I did now. He was cute. "Hey, Keilly," I asked, pointing. "Who is that guy?"

"Oh, him? That's Ethan Allen."

Ethan looked up at the sound of his name. He saw me looking at him. I blushed a little, and smiled. He smiled back, and waved.

"You know that guy, Cat?" Embry asked.

"Nope. Not even a little bit. He's hot, though."

Embry was suddenly as sullen as Cocoa. He wasn't the only one, though. The second I'd said the word 'hot', the entire atmosphere at the table changed. People exchanged worried, furtive glances.

It was Renesmee's reaction though, that was the strongest. She stood up abruptly. "Cathryn," She said crisply," Come with me."

I went, not because I was being obedient, but because I had a feeling that whatever it was she had to say to me, it would be dramatic. And I was right.

She lead me out of Young's and around the side, in a little alley where the dumpster was. She leaned against the brick and stared at me a moment. Her expression was…searching. Searching for what? I had no idea.

I was patient enough to let her do that for about three seconds. "Look," I said. "Renesmee, I-"

"Its Nessie," She interrupted.

I waited for her to say more, but she didn't. "What do you want, Nessie?" I asked bluntly.

She took a deep breath. "You're…you're not like us." She began cautiously.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know," She waved her hand, "Emily. Keilly. Kim. You don't…you're not…." She trailed off, seeming to lose her nerve.

"Not what?" I persisted, trying to help her out a little.

"Listen," She said. Her voice was quiet, even, but I could see the resentment in her dark eyes. "I just think you should be more careful. About the things you say. The way you act. Because I don't think you care about them." She nodded her head back towards the diner. "I don't know why you're leading them on this way. Its really mean."

I looked at her for a moment, a little shocked. "What the _hell,_" I asked finally, "Is that supposed to mean?"

Anger flashed in her dark eyes. "I would throw myself under a bus to keep Jacob from getting hurt." She told me. Her words came faster now, more forceful "You would throw Embry under a bus just for fun. And he deserves better."

That was when she lost me.

"What do Embry and Jacob have to do with this?" I asked her.

She drew back, her eyes widening in horror, realizing that she'd said something wrong. Or something that she shouldn't. "Nothing," She said quickly. She turned on her heel and walked back in.

By the time we had gotten back, my food had arrived. I wasn't hungry. Both Embry and Keilly tried to talk to me, but I gave them nothing to work with. Because for the first time, I felt like an outsider with them. I felt like they were hiding something.

I just didn't know what.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 12

Embry's POV

The next three months I spent doing one of two things. Either living for the fifteen minute period of time twice a day five days a week that I got to spend with Cathryn, and dreading the weekend, when I would have to figure out some way to see her or just follow her around as a wolf, making sure she was okay. The first couple of weeks of this she just listened to her ipod, barely talking to me at all. But I stopped that by telling her that she could only listen to music if she did it on my radio, and it had to be on a station I liked. Not that she followed the rule. But it did piss her off when I tried to boss her around like that, and it usually got her talking.

I started making lists in my head. The things she liked: music, dancing, her dog, making people she didn't like angry. And anything dangerous enough to give me a heart attack, which happened on a fairly regular basis since Quil had started teaching her to skateboard. Even after I practically got down on my knees-hunches, whichever- begging him not to. The things she didn't like: losing arguments, Lizzie, football, running out of itunes money, and Nessie and Cocoa. The things she didn't pay ay attention to: much too long for me to even comprehend. She was one of the ditsiest people I'd ever met. Most of the time. When she wasn't in lala land, however, she was so observant it was scary. So it was probably a good thing that she paid attention to nothing, because if she did she might have figured out I was a werewolf by now. Or at least not entirely human.

I also learned that she was fiercely protective of her friends and family. I found that amusing, since half of the things people said that made her angry were things that she said about them herself. She hated thinking about the future, or things that made her sad, or anything else that she didn't totally and completely understand. She loved little kids, especially Claire. I guess I shouldn't have found that surprising, seeing as she was like a small child herself.

As the months went by, I started to delude myself into thinking that this could all be all right. That I would know just the right time to tell her everything, and that she would be okay with it, and I wouldn't have to worry about her tongue ending up in that Ethan guy's mouth. Or, you know, that it would happen close to that. None of the other imprints had cared all that much. Not in the end. We were perfect together, so it had to work out.

Then came that day in December.

Everybody was psyched about Christmas. School was almost out for Cathryn and Keilly and Seth and Brady and Drew. College courses had already ended for the break. Paul was going to propose to Rachel at Kim and Jared's wedding, which was on New Year's. Jacob and Billy had gritted their teeth over that one, but everyone else was happy for them. My mom and I had been getting along really well since I'd moved in with Jacob and Quil in October. Sam and Emily finally decided on a name for their kid. Nate for a boy, and Natalie for a girl. Emily's stomach was steadily getting bigger, Sam's drunken fatherly happiness steadily getting more pronounced. Cocoa's mood wasn't _great, _but her trademark glare was gone. Jacob and Rosalie, for the first time in all of history, weren't at each other's throats. A Christmas miracle, in my opinion. Cathryn was getting better at skateboarding, which meant less injuries for her, and less chasing Quil all over the Olympic peninsula for me.

I had virtually nothing to distract me from Cathryn, so I was just hanging around the tribal school, a place I'd once sworn to myself I would never again willingly go. Usually, I didn't use my ears for much when I was human. Amazing hearing was only cool if there was something worth hearing. But since I'd imprinted, I found myself using it a lot more often. Like now, when Cat was in Foreign Language, her last period of the day. Also the subject she was failing. Stupid as it seemed that I worried about her in there, it was true. But whenever somebody said or did something to her that made me angry, Drew or Brady always beat me to the punch. Literally. Not that happened too much, as Cathryn was more than capable of taking care of herself. I was pretty sure Cathryn was listening to her ipod in the back of the room. I could hear Paramore, one of her favorite bands, playing softly as background music to Ms. Lippman's droning French. Occasionally she would sigh as she tapped her foot to the rhythm of the music.

I was paying attention to this so closely that at first I didn't feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. "Hello?" I asked, not bothering to read the caller ID.

"Embry," It was Sam, "Where are you?"

"Waiting for Cathryn's class to let out." I replied.

"As soon as you get her, come over to the hospital. And get in touch with Seth and Keilly and all the others still in school, will you?" He said all of this calmly, but I could hear the strain in his voice.

"What's up?" I asked. There weren't a lot of things that got Sam worked up. Just vampires, and-

"Emily's water broke," He told me. "Everything's going good right now, but it'll be premature, and-"

"Right," I said quickly. I could imagine how Sam felt. I'd be scared to death too, if I was about to become a parent. And if Cathryn was the one going through the very painful delivery, I'd go nuts. "Yeah, I'll let them know ASAP. Later."

Chapter 13 Truth

Cathryn's POV

I sighed in relief as the bell rang. Even after almost a whole semester, I'd still never really made friends. The only time I needed people to talk to was during lunch, and I had the high school kids for that. I gathered up my books as quickly as possible and was in the hall and putting them in my locker before anybody else. I did not understand why my parent's wouldn't let me skip the rest of the semester. We'd already taken the finals, now all we were doing was watching movies and making little snowmen out of cardboard. Not very beneficial for later life, in my opinion. But both Bob and my mom were firm. Personally, I thought that they just wanted time alone during the criminally few days they had off.

As soon as I was outside, Embry's beat up truck pulled over in front of me. I was used to him being early, so I didn't suspect much. "Get in," He commanded, leaning over and opening the passenger door.

I didn't get in. "Where's the fire?" I asked.

"Cathryn! For God's sake, are you this freaking stubborn just so you can annoy me?"

"Yes," I told him.

"Emily's in labor. I already called your folks, they don't expect you home until about nine tonight. If it looks like it'll be later, I'll take you home."

"Uh. No you won't. I'm going to be there if it takes all night."

"Which it probably will," He pointed out.

I waited, staring him down.

"Get. In. The. Car." He emphasized each word, speaking as if I were dense.

This time, I did what he said. I know. I was surprised, too. "Is she okay?" I asked, closing the door.

"I think so," he stepped hard on the gas pedal, and we lurched forward. "But I talked to Sam about half an hour ago. Things could have changed."

"I thought the baby wasn't due until January?"

He nodded. "The twenty fourth."

When we got to the hospital, it was obvious that Embry and I were the last ones there. I scanned the waiting room quickly. Jared and Kim, Paul and Rachel, Seth and Keilly, Drew, Brady, Collin, Cocoa, Andrew, Greg, Leah, Luke, Michael, Ricky, Tommy, Jacob and Renesmee, Quil and Claire, Billy and Sue, the council Elders, and Charlie, Sue's husband and chief of police. And a few other elderly people whom I suspected were the grandparents.

"Where's Sam?" I asked.

"Oh, he's at home watching ESPN, not worried at all about the fact that Emily is giving birth to his baby." Quil said, giving me a very sarcastic look. "He's in the room with Emily, scaring the midwives. Where else would he be?"

Poor Sam.

Poor doctors. Of all the La Push giants, Jacob was the biggest. But only by a little. Sam and Embry came next. I pitied the doctor who had been assigned to Emily. At least I knew that she and the baby would be okay though. The chances of any body making a critical mistake when a seven foot tall body builder is breathing down your neck and threatening your life-which is what Sam was probably doing- were very slim. I sat down in a chair and took out my ipod. This was going to take awhile.

"Okay. I'm bored." I told Embry about two hours later. As there hadn't been any more chairs in the room after I'd sat down, he was leaning against the leg of mine.

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" Embry looked at me tiredly.

"Lets play a game." I told him.

"He grinned. "How old are we?"

"Well, I know you can't be younger than forty…."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. What do you want to play?"

"Truth."

"Truth?"

"Yes. I read about it in a book once."

He raised his dark eyebrows. "You read about it."

"Yep."

"In a book."

"Mmm, hmm."

"Okay," He said gamely, up for anything I wanted, as usual. "How do we play?"

"You take turns asking questions. The other person has to answer it truthfully."

"Hence the name."

"Hence the name," I agreed. "If you don't want to answer it, you say 'pass'. Then you ask a question. If the person answers it, then they win."

"All right." Embry adjusted his position so that he was leaning against the coffee table, facing me. Well, I guess it wasn't really a coffee table, it was blue plastic and completely covered in magazines, but I think that's what the hospital people meant it to be. "You start."

"What's you favorite color?" I asked, being nice for once and giving him an easy one first.

"Aren't these questions supposed to be hard to answer?" Embry asked me skeptically. "Like, personal and stuff?"

"That is personal." I told him. "If your favorite color was pink, I'd be holding it over your head for the rest of our lives."

"But it isn't pink."

"Then what is it?"

"Green. My turn."

"Go for it."

"Okay. For all your crap about how sucky this place is, would you really leave it if you got the chance?"

Chapter 14 Baby, Baby

Embry's POV

"I don't know…" Cathryn said slowly, thinking. "Because of the place itself? Definitely."

I winced.

"But the people here I would miss. Can I, Like, take everybody with me?"

"Nope."

"I guess I'd stay." Cathryn said finally, uncertainly.

Well. That was okay then.

"Hmmm..." She thought about it for a minute. "What was the…the _grossest _thing you've ever done?"

I laughed. How random. "The grossest thing?" I repeated.

"Yep."

I thought for a moment. "Okay. There was this one time…."

"What?" She pressed eagerly.

"In my defense, I was only eleven. I went over to Quil's place with Jacob, and we got bored."

"So…."

"So Quil decided to dare me to drink a bottle of ketchup."

"Oh my God." Her eyes popped wide open in shock. "You didn't!"

"Yeah, I did. It was _terrible. _I got so sick. That's why you will never, ever, see me eating ketchup. I can't even look at it."

Cathryn threw back her head and laughed, her whole body shaking. "Brilliant!" She gasped.

"Yeah, not so brilliant when you're on the bathroom floor covered in tomato smelling barf."

"Wow." She shook her head, still grinning.

"All right. I want your top three pet peeves."

"Easy. Doctors, Charlie Brown, and the sound of an alarm clock going off." She grimaced.

"I don't blame you about the alarm clock thing," I told her, "But the people who save lives for a living? One of the most wholesome, all American tv-"

"Oh, Puh-lease," Cathryn groaned, "Doctors are so full of themselves. Whatch, when Emily has the baby, if there is something wrong, they'll ask her all these totally random questions, and if the answers to any of them are yes, they'll tell her that that's why it happened. It'll be her fault."

"Nessie's granddad is a doctor," I told her, trying to be more diplomatic.

"Well, there you go," Cathryn muttered. "Another reason for me to hate her."

"What about Charlie brown?"

"Sooo depressing. All of them involve Charlie trying to do something sweet but way dumb and then all of his friends making fun of him for it. Who enjoys that?"

"Most people, apparently."

Cathryn made a face. "Since when am I most people?"

Well, she had me there.

Cathryn was silent for a moment. "Okay," She said softly, "Now you gotta tell me something hard.

I waited.

"What happened to…what happened with your dad?" She asked.

Crap.

She would, of course, find out about him eventually. That my father was somewhere right under my nose being the father of one of my best friends. With one of the werewolves, we were brothers in more than one sense. But this wasn't something I could easily tell her now. It was too close to THE secret. Too close to my not being entirely human. I wondered how I was going to tell her without getting into that.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth. "I-"

"Guys," Sam's loud voice drowned out everything else. We all turned towards the hall at the front of which he was standing. I'm not going to say that he was all aglow with the enlightenment of having become a parent or anything like that. In all honesty, the guy looked a little crazy. His eyes were shining with some sort of mad gleam, his cheeks flushed underneath the copper. "It's a boy," He breathed.

The reaction was instantaneous. Everyone stood up and thundered down the hall, Cathryn at the front of everyone, right behind Sam. Of course she would want to be the first to see Baby Nate. I walked a little bit behind her, next to Leah. She was walking rapidly, her brow furrowed. I felt a brief wave of sympathy towards her. Even after all this time, all these years of being free from Sam's mind, it was still hard for her to be around him. She had made amends with Emily soon after joining Jacob's pack, and that relationship was almost entirely restored to their previous sisterhood. But things would never be okay with her and Sam. Leah would always be attracted to him.

It was obvious which door Emily was in. The one with all the nurses running in and out, carrying equipment and trash bags and cloths drenched with blood. It was one of these nurses that stopped Cathryn from running straight in there.

"Family members only," She said, glaring at Cathryn. I felt a rush of anger. How was Cathryn supposed to have known that?

Mrs. Uley and The Youngs pushed their way inside, followed by the Clearwaters. "Lucky," I heard Cathryn mutter resentfully.

Their entering was followed by a lot of tears and 'Oh, baby, he's perfect's.' Typical birth. At least, that's what I thought at first. Had I been paying more attention, I would have heard Leah's gasp, heard her heart stutter twice, then set off galloping at about twice its normal rate. It was a good while before anyone noticed.

Then Sam gasped. That one though, I heard. "Leah," he snarled, "You didn't."

"Can I…Can I hold him?" Leah asked breathlessly, failing to notice the anger in his voice.

"Wha…Leah, _no!_" Emily exclaimed, fresh tears in her voice. These though, were not happy ones.

The rest of the pack exchanged fearful glances. Sam was pissed off, obviously. Leah had just made his Emily cry. We all knew what that meant.

Sure enough, about three seconds later we were all very rudely jostled by Sam, his previous delirium relplaced by uncontrollable anger, dragging Leah behind him. The rest of both packs followed him, knowing that a lot was going to need to be discussed. If Sam wanted to discuss it. More likely though, we would all just have to defend Leah, as he was probably ready to kill her. Leah, however, didn't look worried at all. She wasn't even looking at him. Her head was turned, staring through the opened doors of Emily's room at the tiny baby in her ams. In her eyes I could see all the things I'd felt for Cathryn when I first saw her, and still did. Love, need, peace, mad addiction, protectiveness, and certainty.

Leah had imprinted.


	6. Chapter 6

15 Reality

Cathryn's POV

I watched, dumbfounded, as Embry and most every body else disappeared out the hospital doors. I mean, come on. Em slaves over birthing a kid for god knows how long, and nobody cares. Poor child. I glanced back towards Emily's hospital room. The nurse was still glaring at me. Right. Like I was going to hang around outside the room of a baby I wasn't going to get to see when I could be yelling at the inconsiderate, shallow low-lives commonly referred to as men. What could be so important that you would abandon your wife and son in their time of need?

I started to follow them.

"Wait," A burning hand gripped my wrist. I looked down into the chocolate eyes of Renesmee Cullen.

"What?" I asked her, not too politely. I didn't have time for her and her stupid lectures now.

"Leave them alone. Just let them fight it out." She told me, her voice tense and pleading.

I almost laughed out loud. She actually thought that I was going to miss…whatever was going on outside because _she _told me to? "Heck, no." I tugged, expecting her young muscles to give way easily to my own. But I was wrong. As per usual. Her grip was like steel. White, beautiful steel. "Ness," I said, getting annoyed now. "Let go."

She shook her copper curls. "No. Please, Cat, leave it alone."

"Honey. Only my friends can get away with calling me Cat. And you definitely don't fit inside that category."

She dropped my hand as though she had been slapped. Good. Annoying bitch. I walked briskly down the hall, through the waiting room, and outside into the cold, wet night. That was when my confident strut slowed a little. Where had they gone? I looked at the parking lot for a minute, contemplating. It was still pretty full of cars, so they were somewhere around here.

Suddenly, I heard something. Sam, maybe? He was definitely that loud….

I followed the sound of the yelling around the side of the place and out back. What I saw made me stop in my tracks.

Yep, they were there.

"Sam, please," Leah begged, blinking back-tears? I must have been dreaming. Leah was tougher than that. By far. "Its not my-"

"HE WAS JUST BORN! EMILY'S BEEN SO HAPPY FOR SO LONG AND NOW SHE'S JUST GOT HIM AND YOU THINK THAT ONE FREAKING GLANCE IS GONNA GIVE YOU A FREEBIE AND LET YOU TAKE HIM FROM HER?!"

Only he didn't say _freaking. _I just thought that typing that may be a bit much. You get the point. The guy was pissed. About what, though, I couldn't tell you. Honestly, I wasn't too busy trying to figure it out. I was much more interested in the way he _looked. _His whole body was shaking, sort of blurred. Scary looking.

Then, all at once, his eyes went flat black, and he leapt forward, blurring even more. Suddenly, he exploded, leaving a giant black wolf in his place. The wolf came at Leah, snarling. Leah, however, raced forward to meet him. She too exploded, but instead of black, this one was gray, and a bit less intimidating. But only a bit.

I staggered back, shocked. Wolves? Werewolves? Really? Really really? But… that wasn't possible. Werewolves, they were fake. Imaginary. The stuff of stories, legends…. Legends. The campfire, the stories they told, Embry told me, spirit warriors, packs of Indian shape shifters….

Yeah, yeah. I know. I should have seen it coming. The ginormous size, the closeness of them all, despite the range in ages, the strength, Renesmee's secrecy. Legends that were still told even thousands of years later. I mean, duh. But the thing is, who would suspect something like that? Who would even _dream_ that it was all real? You'd have to be crazy. Which wasn't a very good excuse, seeing as I wasn't exactly all there, but still. I watched, dumbstruck, as the gray and black wolves proceeded to totally go at it. The black one looked like it was winning. Which made sense. Sam was way bigger than Leah in both forms. And he was way more pissed off.

The thing was, I was having a hard time concentrating on the fight. I was a little preoccupied by screaming bloody murder. Very loudly, I might add. It took a surprisingly long amount of time for the rest of the…pack to notice. It was Embry who saw me first, though. He ran towards me, much faster than was natural, and scooped me up into his arms, just like on the day I was supposed to have heard the legends. I'd never gotten why he hadn't just let me hear them then, instead of explaining them over the phone. I understood now. He had edited his version a tiny bit. He'd left out the small detail of it all being TRUE.

Either way, being held quite tightly in flaming arms in the middle of freezing cold rain calmed me. I managed to shut up after a minute. Which was when I heard Embry yammering in my ear. "-_so _sorry," He was saying, his words tense in my ear. "I was gonna tell you, I swear. But not like this. This was a terrible way for you to have found out. Listen, are you all right? Not going into shock or anything?" He paused, waiting for my verdict.

"I think…I think I'd better go home now." My grief, was that tiny little squeaky sound _me? _How perfectly awful I sounded.

Embry seemed to agree "Uh, maybe we should swing by the Cullens first. Carlisle's there, he's the doctor. He can make sure you're okay-"

"I'm fine." I interrupted, my voice sounding stronger this time. "Just really tired. So take me home. Now."

"Uhh…"

"Embry, _please._"

He gave in, carrying me too quickly to his truck, then driving me too quickly to my house.

He stopped at my driveway. I opened the door to get out, but as I started to close it, Embry caught my hand, stopping me.

"You're sure you're okay?" He asked me.

I stared at him for a minute. His hair was wet and sticking out haphazardly in many directions. His eyes bored into mine, warming me the way his arms had. He was worried, I could tell. Not that I could blame him. I'd spent the entire ride staring at my reflection in the rearview mirror, and I looked like crap.

Something in the way he looked at me…it was unreadable. There was something there…but it had always been like that. There had always been something in Embry's eyes when he looked at me that I'd never been able to quite get.

"Yes, Embry. I'm okay. For real." I assured him, my voice surprisingly gentle.

He searched my face for any sign that I might me lying. Finally, though, he nodded and let me go.

As soon as I opened the front door, I was greeted enthusiastically by my mother.

"Hi sweetie! Did everything turn out all right?" She asked me a little uncertainly as she took in my expression.

"Yeah. Everything went great. It was a boy. He's adorable." I told her, arranging my features into what I hoped was a smile.

"That's wonderful." She beamed at me, obviously expecting me to launch into a detailed explanation of the birth, as I usually did whenever something exited me.

"Yeah. But…I'm really tired. It's been a long day. I'll tell you about everything in the morning before school, okay?"

"Oh. Right! Okay! Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Night," I murmured on my way up the stairs.

When I got to my room, though, I wished I wasn't in it. I felt too confined, claustrophobic. I crossed the room and went outside, onto my balcony, even though it was pouring. I sat in my chair, letting my clothes and hair get soaked. I decided that Embry had been right. I was going into shock. Trust me to not realize it until I was all alone. I'd be dead by morning.

Slowly, as I processed the massive amounts odd information I'd been given, I came to a verdict.

I was mad.

Beyond mad. I was _furious._

Because they had lied. All of them, I was beginning to realize. Leah and Sam weren't the only werewolves. Embry, Seth, Collin, Brady, Drew, Quil. Their girlfriends probably knew about it. So Keilly and Emily had lied as well. And Jacob and Renesmee. And Billy and Sue. And maybe even Claire. They'd been my best friends, and they'd been more or less living a totally different life. They weren't even human. And Embry expected me to be _okay? _He was a whack job. They all were.

And I was apparently a dog-person.

"Bob," I whined, "Take your hands off and let me see." I tried my best to make the words sound exited instead of annoyed. I appreciated whatever it was that they were doing, but I really wasn't in the mood. Not that I had been in the mood for the past two weeks, but still.

I'd spent the last two weeks of school at home with the flu, on account of falling asleep that night in the rain, and avoiding phone calls from all my friends except for Leslie, who, like me, had been totally blind to the whole …I really didn't like to think about it that much. Everyone else, though, I'd given the cold shoulder.

Now it was Christmas Day, and my mood wasn't any better than it had been since I'd been let in on the secret. My family had apparently noticed, because as soon as we'd opened our presents Bob had thrown his arm over my face and towed me around half the house, leading me to my big "surprise". Everyone was following us. Even my stepsiblings. I actually saw Mark _smile _before I was blind folded.

"Surprise!" They all yelled. Bob removed his hands from my eyes.

I blinked, surprised. Why were we outside?

In front of me was a bright green Porsche.

Let me just take this moment to say that I didn't know the absolute most in the world about cars. I was proud that I even could tell that it was a Porsche. But I wasn't a total idiot. Even I could tell that the thing was fabulous.

I took a small step towards it and stroked the window with trembling fingers. "Ahh-ahhh…" I murmured. "Is she …mine?" I was afraid to say the words.

"All yours, baby." Mom beamed, spreading her arms wide.

"But…I'm only thirteen." This had to be a dream. A cruel, incredibly farfetched, overexcited dream. Or a hallucination. Thus proving that I am insane.

"Yeah, well, we know how much you want to learn how to drive, and we thought you might want a head start. And the move has been so hard on you. You're not happy all the time, sweetie, but we all want to change that. Think this'll help?"

Ah. Okay. Now I got it. A bribe. They wanted me to be happier. In my room less. Smile. Laugh.

So not gonna happen.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 17 Back

Cathryn's POV

Okay. You want to know the scoop? The one thing I that I absolutely _can't do _no matter how hard I try?

Its hold a grudge.

I mean, it wasn't as if they didn't fully deserve it. They lied to me for almost a year. And not some dinky little thing like a girlfriend or whatever. They lied about their _species, _for crying out loud. And when I finally did find out, it was an accident. Who knows how long they would have kept me in the dark? Forever? Probably.

And then there was the whole matter of my safety. Those wolves were huge. Bigger than bears. Not exaggerating. They could rip me to shreds in a second. And they wouldn't have any control over it. According to Embry's legends, they phase when they lose their temper. I tended to have that effect on people. Although this wouldn't be the first time he'd lied to me.

But, for some reason, I couldn't stay mad at them. Truly. I wasn't that upset. That didn't mean I was going to end my silent treatment, but it definitely made it harder. That, and the fact that it was lunch time and I had nobody to eat with. So what I did was, I walked out of the middle school and skateboarded over to the High School, like usual. Only not really because Drew wasn't there to give me pointers and let me know when I'm doing something wrong that could cause me to fall. Needless to say that my jeans were quite a bit ripped up by the time I got there.

This was where I got stuck. Obviously, I couldn't go in. So I resigned myself to walking around the block all dejectedly, dragging the skateboard behind me. Pathetic, right? If you had been there, you so would have seen me and thought that I was homeless or something.

At least, that's what the guys in the parking lot seemed to think.

There were about six of them, all hanging around this huge van that made Embry's truck look clean and shiny. They were smoking, too. Isn't that weird? I always thought you only saw stuff like that in movies. You'd think that the teachers would have caught them.

Anyway, one of them saw me. "Hey," He crowed. He made a beckoning gesture with his badly groomed head.

I know, I know. I fully should have been all, "Thanks, but no thanks". I should have turned around and walked away, back to the middle school or into the high school where I would have made up with Keilly and Seth and Brady and the rest of them. That's what a smart person would have done.

But when have I ever claimed to be smart?

I shuffled over, head down. The one that had called me over held up a beer. "Want one?" He asked.

Be proud of me. I made the right choice that time. "No thanks," I muttered. He shrugged and put it back.

My rejection got one of the guy's attention. He had curly dark hair and lighter skin than the average Native American. He also had a sprinkling of freckles over his nose, and bright blue eyes. Probably only half Indian. He was handsome in a funky, exotic way. He looked up and flashed me a smile. "Hey," He drawled. "I'm Hart."

"Cat," I responded, smiling back uncertainly.

Other than Hart and the other guy, they didn't take too much notice of me. Just went about what they'd been doing before. They were different from what I was used to, but for some unknown reason, I enjoyed it. I listened intently to all the crap that every one said, trying to distinguish the difference in personalities and attitude. I said some thing whenever I could get a word in. Not anywhere near as natural as with the wolves, but bearable.

I was stranded. At school. Stuck at my crappy school with virtually nothing to rescue me. There was no way Embry was coming to pick me up, and even if he was I probably wouldn't ride with him. Nope. The prospect of walking home or sleeping on a cafeteria table was much more welcoming to me than trying to get a ride from Lizzie or Embry or any of the others.

I leaned against the flagpole, trying to look less dumb than I felt.

"Uh…Cathryn, right?" A finger tapped my shoulder.

I spun around. It was Hart, smirking slightly with his hands in his pockets. He sounded and looked a lot less wasted than he had earlier. "Need a ride?" He asked me, smirk still in place.

"Um," I bit my lip, not sure how to put my strange request. "Sure. But could you, like, not take me home?" I'd spent half the month trapped at the stupid place, and I did not look forward to going back.

"I'll take you to my place," He promised, asking no questions.

Chapter !9 Sketchy

Cathryn's POV

Hart lived in a small house just down the road from the store that Embry's mom owned.

The thing of it was that he didn't act like it was his home. He walked in head down, shoulders tensed. You know. Wary. It was odd. Once we were in, though, he relaxed. "Hey, mom." He said, nodding towards the lady on the computer. She looked kind of like him. They had the same eyes and freckles and curls, only hers were blonde. She might have been pretty once, but not any more. Her face was etched with worry lines, her shoulders hunched forward, as if braced for a battle. The same way Hart had been when he first walked in.

Hart lead me into his room. The first word that crossed my mind was…_clean._

Because that's what it was. So perfect, and fresh, and freaking clean! It was the kind of room that drove me insane. I hated clean. It made me want to pin my arms to my sides, stand up straight, and not move. It wasn't comfortable. Not lived in. Not homey. Good Grief. Who had _done _this? His mother? Surely she wasn't that crazy….

Hart sat down on the bed, smoothing out a wrinkle in the spread. Ugh. Not his mother. Him. "So you're in middle school?" He asked me a little condescendingly.

"Yes," I sniffed, flopping down on his bed and purposely messing it up. "Got a problem with it?"

He smiled. "Naw," he said, sneakily placing a hand on my thigh. "I'm good."

I stared at him for a moment, not entirely sure how to react. I didn't like the way he was looking at me. Nor did I like the way he'd said the word _naw. _Slurred. Maybe he was less sober than I'd thought?

Suddenly, a loud bang made us both jump. "I CALLED LIKE NINE TIMES!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL BACK? HUH, BITCH?!" A man's voice bellowed. His voice was slurred too, like Hart's.

"Shit." Hart whispered. "Dad."

"What?" I jumped up. "That's you're _father?_" But he didn't seem to notice me.

Another thud came from the house, this time mingled with a woman's cries. The color drained from Hart's face. He stood up and walked slowly down the hall. The battle pose was back. I started to follow him, but he stopped about halfway down, and turned around, facing me.

"You," He said, looking down at me. He looked sort of dazed, confused. Like he'd forgotten I was there.

"Me." I replied.

"Stay here." He told me.

"No." I said, crossing my arms. I wanted to know what the crap was going on. Although I was already pretty sure.

He put his hands firmly on my shoulders. "Stay here." He repeated, glaring at me.

Something in his voice made me, for once, do what I was told. I went back into his room and waited impatiently for him to return. I started hearing the yelling again. "GET OFF HER!" This voice was familiar. Hart.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME WHAT TO DO, BOY?! LEARN YOU'RE GODDAMN PLACE!!!"

I heard several more thuds, these shaking the house. I cringed. A few seconds later, Hart came stumbling back in, falling apart before my eyes. He was cradling his shoulder. One side of his face was already beginning to swell. He looked terrible.

It was a second before he noticed me, staring up at him in shock. "You-I should take you home," He muttered. He fumbled around the dresser for his keys. His hands shook.

I stood up and walked over to him and put a hand on his good shoulder. "Leave me alone," He murmured, cringing away from me a little. However, my brief bout of obedience was long gone. I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him into a tight hug.

At first he was still. Surprised. But after a moment he relaxed against me, burying his face in my hair.

Chapter 20

From that day on, Hart and I were together. Like, together together. Every day at lunch we'd either eat with his friends or he'd take me over to McDonald's or someplace and we'd eat alone. I was in heaven. Or as close to heaven as possible. What with the issues with the werewolves and my lack of ability to drive my beautiful Jewel-that's what I'd named my car- I obviously wasn't as happy as I could have been.

But ….

Okay. I have a confession. I've never had a boyfriend. Which I don't guess is a huge deal, since I'm only thirteen. And it isn't as if I'm an ogre or anything. I don't look that bad. I mean, I'm not pretty, by any means, but I'm not fat or scared or covered in zits or cursed with incredibly frizzy hair or have some kind of hideous deformity or anything. I'm…decent looking. Guys have liked me before. Not a whole lot of guys, but still.

Only I didn't like anybody back. Back in Florida, I was in honor's Math and English, and I lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods. The only guys I had to choose from were either total geeks or arrogant idiots. Neither were particularly appealing.

So I wasn't exactly sure how these things worked. I just went along with him, not paying attention and letting him lead. He seemed to enjoy this. We had a pretty set schedule by February. He'd pick me up, and take me to school, I'd skateboard over to the high school during lunch-carefully avoiding Drew- and meet him in the parking lot. He'd take me home from school once it was over, then call that night. And, you know, we'd hang out at the beach and go to the movies and stuff.

I was settling into my new life pretty well, in my opinion. I didn't speak to my old friends anymore, not even Leslie too much. I didn't think about them. Never said a word about them to Hart. It was like they'd never been a part of my life.

However, I couldn't ignore my gleaming Porsche, sitting all alone in the garage. It was like it was calling to me. _Cathryn, Cathryn, Drive me. _It would beckon. Sitting day after day in Hart's clanky van that smelled like liquor and moldy pizza had quickly gotten old. I wanted speed. I wanted beauty. I wanted to be able to breathe without gagging.

It was one Saturday during which Hart was not there to keep me occupied that I finally cracked. Age was just a number, right? But I knew that there was no way Mark would teach me to drive. He'd been convinced that I'd joined a gang ever since he'd met Hart. And Lizzie could hardly drive _herself, _let alone teach someone else. So I broke the one rule I'd ever made for myself.

I remembered the wolves.

Embry's car may not have been mint, but it had run well. Fast. Good mileage. The brakes worked, and stuff. He had known cars. But I didn't want to talk to him. We'd been too close. There was no way I could just show up and demand he teach me how to drive. He'd want an explanation, if anything. One that I didn't feel like giving.

But there were others. Jacob in particular, I knew, was a good mechanic. According to Embry, he was working at Dowling's as the Assistant manager. The actual owner was getting up there in years, and when he died, Jacob would get the business.

So after much begging from my part and much complaining on Lizzie's, I was being driven to Dowling's by a very grumpy stepsister.

"I don't understand you," Lizzie ranted as we turned a corner. "I mean, the Porsche obviously runs. You aren't even going to use the stupid thing for another three years." She sped up, demonstrating my car's awesomeness. " It's so dumb. And then it comes around to _me. _You're so selfish."

She kept up a steady stream of similar talk until we got there. Then she saw Jacob.

"My God." She said softly, star struck. "What's with you and all these hot friends?"

Rolled my eyes. "Jake!" I yelled.

He'd been leaning against a SUV and talking adamantly with its owner when I'd gotten there, but as soon as he heard my voice, he'd walked over, a huge smile on his face. I didn't get that. For one thing, he should hate me. Or at least be a little wary. For another, even if he had nothing against me, he shouldn't look so darned _happy. _Or relieved. It didn't add up.

I swear, these mythical creatures are just so hard to understand.

He loped over, still grinning. "Hey," He said, looking at my car appreciatively. "Nice ride."

"Yeah. Whatever." I said impatiently. "I need you to teach me how to drive it."

He snorted. "Sure, sure." He said. "How old are you? Six?"

"Close." I crossed my arms. "I'll pay you."

"You can't pay me." He said flatly. "You're a kid."

Hey. It wasn't a no. "So you'll do it?" I asked hopefully.

"I never said that."

"Sure, sure." I retorted.

He stared at me for a moment, eyebrows furrowed. "What," He said finally. "You don't have a problem with a _monster _touching your car?"

I flinched.

He smirked.

"Look," I said slowly, carefully. "It's not because of what they are. I just don't like them lying about it."

"Right," He snorted. "Like Em-Seth's going to walk up to you one random day and be all 'hey, I'm a werewolf'?"

"Obviously not." I snapped. "But they could have told me at some point. I mean, how long were you guys planning on keeping this a secret from me? Forever?"

Jacob bit his lip, but said nothing.

"Then why did they even talk to me?" I pressed. "If I was nothing but some ignorant _human?_"

"I'll do it." He said abruptly.

"Do what?"

"The car. I'll teach you how to drive."

"Serious?" I squealed, sounding like Lizzie. "Thanks so much!" I threw my arms around him. He was very, very warm.

"Hey, what's with the heat?" I asked, pulling away. "Wolf thing?"

"Uh, yeah." He said, looking uncomfortable.

"And the height? The muscles?"

"Those too. Here's the deal though, about the car." He said, changing the subject. "We can't talk about what I am."

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. "Why not?" I asked.

He looked away, and murmured something that sounded like, "It's not my place to tell you."

I stared at him, bewildered. "What the crap is that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

"Like I said. It's not my place."

"But-"

"Hey! We aren't talking about this, remember? Or maybe you don't want to learn how to-"

"Fine! Fine. I'm shutting up now." I assured him.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 22 First time

After Jacob had started to teach me how to drive, my life had been pretty much perfect. I felt almost normal again. Not depressed, not lonely anymore. Only with Hart, things had started to change. The fact of the matter was, he was seventeen years old. He wasn't pressuring me to do anything, of course not, but I knew what he wanted. Eventually, I would end up giving it to him. And I was right.

Oh, calm down. Not _that._ Like I would go all the way with a guy at fourteen. How small town do you think I am? Second base, maybe. PG thirteen stuff. We were at Hart's house, which was mercifully empty. We were going at it on his bed. His shirt was off, and his hands were up mine.

Let me tell you something about tonsil hockey. It has got to be with the right person. I don't mean that it has to be True Love, or anything like that. I couldn't care less about his personality. I mean that the style has to be right. Because frenching Hart? Not so fun. Like, my body did not get all tingly whenever he touched it. I didn't see fireworks. Spots, maybe, from lack of air, but no fireworks. He had his face jammed right up against mine, and he kept jamming his tongue down my throat. And biting my lips. I swear, it was like he was eating my face. Kind of disgusting, to be honest.

And, to top it all off, I couldn't keep my mind on him. When you kiss, I'd always thought that your thoughts are supposed to go all fuzzy. I had no fuzz. Instead, I kept being reminded of the wolves. Actually, just Embry. He'd never liked to hear about my opinion when it came to guys. Very protective. It had been annoying. And instead of thinking about Hart right now, I was thinking about how pissed off this would make Embry.

Suddenly, Hart broke away from me, pulling back to look at me, a look of utter disbelief on his face. "Who's Embry?" He demanded.

"What?" I asked.

"We were kissing, and you went, 'Embry'. Who is he?"

Crap. I'd said it out loud.

"Erm…" I bit my lip, trying to figure out how to put what I wanted to say. "He's…just this guy…."

"Oh my God." Hart said hoarsely. "You're with him, aren't you? You're cheating on me."

Exactly the conclusion I'd been afraid he would come to. "No! Listen, he's just-"

"Don't lie to me, Cathryn," Hart's eyes narrowed.

"I'm not-"

_WHAM._

Hart's fist connected with my jaw, the movement so quick that I barley had time to register it. The force was so great that it sent me flying off the bed and into the bedside table. I hit my mouth on it, and I tasted blood.

I was still for a moment, staring up at his shaking frame in shock. In that moment, I was reminded again of the wolves. They shook almost exactly like that when they were about to phase. Only, in the one incident when I'd gotten to see their transformation, I hadn't been afraid. Disbelieving, yes. Angry, yes. Hurt, yes. Scared? No. And I was very scared now.

Yep. I admit it. I was afraid of my boyfriend. You would have been too, though, if you'd seen him. I'd never seen him look like that before. His whole face was dark, menacing. His eyes were narrowed into tiny slits. A vein was pulsing in his forehead. There was certainly nothing handsome about him now.

Then what was I doing here?

I got up quickly, pushing past Hart and running through the front door. When I was out, though, I didn't stop. I ran past the Ateara's house and the store and the beach and lots of other places I didn't recognize. I ran fast, faster than I ever had in my life. Like I was flying. So fast that my lungs were bursting in only a matter of seconds, and I tripped more than once. But it wasn't fast enough.

See, I don't know about you, but there are just some things in this world that I would prefer to be an idiot about. That I would like to just ignore, to walk away from, to leave them behind like they're just some unpleasant memory that happened ages ago. Even if they are still happening. And I'd been an idiot about a lot of things lately.

Now, all of them were catching up to me. And no matter how fast I ran, how hard I concentrated on the wind whistling in my ears or my hair dancing behind me, I was going to have to face them. Each one hit me much harder than the blow I'd taken from Hart.

Leslie. She was one friend who was truly just an innocent bystander in all of this. And I'd clumped her over with all the liars, all the cheaters, trying to start over in a part of my life that was already perfect.

Claire. Okay, maybe she knew. But she was in _kindergarden. _I was shunning a five year old. How mature was that? Plus, babysitting her had been my main income for awhile now, and I was burning quite a few holes in my wallet by ignoring her and her sister.

Keilly. Emily. Two of the sweetest people I'd ever met. Not only that, but they'd been kick ass enough that they'd found out about what their boyfriends were, and they didn't even care. They defied nature. How wicked awesome was that? I should fully worship the ground they walked on, not hate them.

Seth. Brady. Jacob. Drew. Quil. Sam and Leah and Paul and all the rest of them. Duh, they hadn't told me what they were. They were _werewolves. _Creatures of myths. Only, you know, way different. Hollywood should totally have gotten their facts straight before making a bunch of movies about them. So of course they weren't going to tell me. I'd have turned them all in to a mental institution! Which was where I probably belonged.

I should fully be on my knees, begging theses people's forgiveness! Instead, I'd been mean. Close minded. Petty. Stupid. And flirting around with….

Hart. This one didn't hit me like a punch. More like a slap. A much deserved slap in the face. He'd been the one person I willingly talked to for months. I'd been the angel that nursed his wounds when his father beat the crap out of him. Okay, maybe not an angel, but you get my point. We'd been so close. And he was a monster. Not like the others. A monster in a different sense, in a much worse one. The kind that damaged people. The kind that I was.

Oh, God.

_Embry. _This blow hit me with so much force that I staggered to a stop, breathing heavily, from guilt as much as exertion. He'd been so sweet, so selfless, when it came to me. The guy was my chauffer, for lord's sake. And a twenty year old smoking hot guy has better things to do in the morning than take a middle schooler to class. Like sleep off a hangover.

I closed my eyes and pictured his face. The way he'd looked at me that night I'd found out and asked me if I was okay. There was concern written all over it. Concern and …something else. Something I could never identify. Because it was always there on his features whenever I saw him. Concealed, carefully under wraps, but big. And definitely there.

A huge clap of thunder sounded overhead. I snapped out of my haze and was startled to see that it was raining. And had been for awhile, if the wetness of my hair and clothes was of any indication. I shivered and looked around, trying to figure out where I was. Still a good three miles from my house. I would never make it.

I looked around. I was going to need a place to crash until the storm blew over.

Starbucks. Ahhh, my saving grace. I made a beeline for the welcoming building, pulling my hood over my head as I did so. If I kept my head down, maybe so one would see the bruise that I was sure was appearing on my face.

"Do _not _come again," I heard the cashier say to a customer, who snatched up his coffee and headed for a table, scowling.

I stepped up to the counter. "What do you want?" She asked me savagely.

"Caramel Frapichino," I told her, mirroring her tone.

She mumbled something threatening and got to work with my drink. _Slowly. _Her movements were so sluggish that a part of me wondered if maybe she was having an even worse day than my own.

But that was a very small part.

"Would it kill you to go any faster?" I asked irritably.

"Yes!" She snapped back.

Finally, though, she handed me my coffee. "Took you long enough." I told her, grudgingly forking over a few dollars. I started to go find a table.

"Hey! Wait up!" The girl calls, coming around the back of the counter and grabbing my arm.

I glared at her, pulling on her grip. But she wouldn't let me go. "What? Did I forget your tip?" I asked her sarcastically.

"Yeah, actually, you did," She retorted. "What's your name?"

Like I was going to tell her that. "What are you going to do, call the police?"

"I might. But I think I know you."

Now that wasn't something I was expecting to hear. I stopped tugging at my arm and looked her up and down. She was about a head shorter than me, and more sturdily built, with more to put in a bra than I had ever even thought about having. Her dark hair was chopped short under her Starbucks hat. She was also whearing an apron that was much too big for her, but I could see a pair of brightly colored converse sticking out from under the fabric. Not unlike my own.

I was the converse that did it.

Cocoa. I hadn't recognized her before without the gell she usually put in her hair to make it stand wildly in spikes all around her head, or all the goth make up. She looked almost _normal._

That didn't mean I was going to talk to her though.

"Just get out of my way." I yanked one more time, and this time she released me. I was out the door and hallway down the street in two seconds. The rain had, miraculously, stopped.

"Hey, you're Cathryn, right?" She called after me. I ignored her.

"Come on!" She yelled, following me now. "Embry's not that bad!"

I whirled around and gazed at her disbelievingly. "What did you say?" I asked her.

"I know all about your little problem." She told me. " It's no big deal."

Now, as I'm sure you've already figured out, I am not a patient person. Nor am I understanding. Or empathetic, or forgiving, or any of it. Unless you are a little kid or a puppy, I'm pretty much not a nice person. And I'd reached the end of my rope.

"How do you know about that?!" I demanded. "And it's not a _little _problem!"

I didn't wait for an answer. Instead, I turned around and walked briskly towards my road.

But she followed me. Again.

"Of course I know about that!" She panted, as fast-walking for me was jogging for her. "I hang out with the wolves all the time! Collin's my best friend."

I may have been angry with Leslie, but I was very quickly getting over it, and I wasn't sure that Embry's denial of Collin and Cocoa's more-than-friendship was entirely reliable. "You're boyfriend?" I asked her.

"Whoa! My _best _friend." She told me.

"So you don't care that your best friend is a giant dog?" I asked her doubtfully.

"Um, no. I like him _better _when he's a dog."

Good Grief. All these human girls, none of them cared at all that the guys were wolves. Even this Cocoa brat was making me look bad.

"Well I hope those giant dogs eat you!" I spat.

I sped up, turning off the road and into the woods. I still wasn't ready to go home. I needed to clear my head.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 23 Not the Plan

When I write this part, I'm not going to use my point of view. I honestly don't think I could. Because I don't remember it being me. Like it was happening to some other girl. A weak, powerless, desperate reflection of Cathryn Tarver. But not to me.

Let's see. A girl walks down her driveway, her mouth set in a firm, determined line. On the surface. But if you studied that mouth for a few seconds longer, you would have seen that it was also defensive. Scared. It's about seven o'clock in the morning, so the girl is walking slower than she usually does, yawning and wondering how far it is to her school and whether or not she would even go. She is seriously craving a capichino. She is also craving certain people. A few of them seemed larger than life, protective. Almost fatherly. A few of them wild and peppy to the point where it was annoying, but so disgustingly content with the world that the girl just had to laugh. And one quiet, confusing, impossible, even bigger than the fatherly ones, and…different, somehow. This person she wanted in a subtly different way. But she wasn't in the mood to think about that now.

Unfortunately, the only person that she did not want at the moment was currently driving by in one of the most horrible vehicles known to man. He stopped the car and got out, calling to her.

The girl turned around to face him, her face a mask of fury and disbelief. "What the-Dude. You hit me. We are, like, so far from drive-to-school-status right now, it isn't even funny."

The boy hunches his shoulders, looking properly abashed and almost sweet, like the mastermind he is. "I know," He murmurs quietly, soothingly. "And I want you to know how sorry I am about that. I can't even think. I honestly don't know how I could do something like that to you. Even if you are cheating, baby, I'll always love you."

The girl, instead of softening, touched by the boy's sincere words, just looks horrified. "You- stupid-Gah!" She sputters. "Do I care that you love me?"

"You should," The boy mumbles in the same seductive tone.

"Yeah? Well, I don't. We are through."

The boy looks up now, his face so full of agony that even the girl believes it, and she takes a step closer. "Pease don't do this," he whispers brokenly.

The girl squints at him for a moment, deliberating. Then, suddenly, she jerks away from him as if breaking some sort of spell. "You're crazy," She hisses. "You're a selfish, violent, insecure idiot, just like your father!"

The girl should not have said this. Even _she _realizes that. The boy advances on her, his own face now furious. His whole demeanor had changed so fast that it is bewildering. He slaps the girl, hard, across the face. She stumbles. He takes advantage of the moment and pushes her. She hits the ground hard, letting out a choked moan as she does so.

But the boy isn't finished. He kicks her roughly, so hard that she rolls over. He kicks her again. And again. The girl tries to get up, to curl up into a ball, to grab his foot, do o anything that would make the pain stop, but he is too fast. He doesn't stop kicking. "Take that back," He snarls.

"Fine! Fine." the girl gasps, desperate for some sort of relief.

He kicks her once more, this one the hardest of all. The girl squeezes her eyes shut, trying to keep the tears in her eyes from escaping.

The boy kneels down, crouching over her bruised form. "You leaving me, bitch?" He whispers.

Silence.

The boy stands, and takes his foot back, preparing for another kick. "No!" The girl says quickly, almost a yell. "No, I'm not leaving you."

The boy smiles sadistically and picks her up, cradling her against his chest. His mood has, once again, changed so abruptly that it is scary. "Look at you, baby." He whispers in her ear. "You're all beat up. You can't go to school like this. Let me take you back to my place."

These words seemed to trigger something within me, and my out-of-body-experience was over. Too bad. Now I had to feel the damage. And My God was it painful. My whole rib cage was throbbing, my knees were bleeding badly from having fallen. My jaw was hurting again. Had he kicked that, too?

But after a few disorienting seconds, I could think around the hurt. This guy was insane. What had I ever been thinking? Staying with a guy whose daddy taught him that it was okay to beat people up. I should have stopped that thing right then. I should have squirmed away from his hold and walked away, back home. I should have told my parents what was happening, and watched happily as Hart was sentenced to jail, or rehab, or whatever it was that the whack job needed. But that was what logical people did. And I, while having quite a few qualities, some of them even good, logic was not one of them. And Hart's arms were _comfortable._ All warm and soft. Almost like some one else's arms I'd been in fairly recently. But not quite.

So I leaned into him and let him strap me into his car and drive me to his house and nurture me and kiss me and tsk, tsk over my wounds, like some one else had given them to me. I was lazy. I didn't feel like being brave, or smart, or headstrong, or any of it. I just felt like existing. I was too tired to do anything more than that.

Chapter 24 Ashamed

They hadn't faded. It had been four days since Hart had beat me up, and the bruises weren't even beginning to yellow. I looked _terrible._ Every part of my body from my jaw to my shins had been painted black and blue by my darling boyfriend. I hadn't slept. How could I have, what with the searing pain every time I tried to so much as role over? And the stress had sent me off of my healthy kick. I was gaining my weight back, and quickly. Plus the sugar wasn't doing much for my complexion. I gazed critically at my reflection in the mirror. All of these things put together equaled fat girl with circles under her eyes and a zit on her chin wincing every time she poked her multi-colored rib cage.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

And I couldn't stop it. Not any of it. If I tried to break things off with Hart, we'd have a repeat of what had happened that morning I'd skipped school. All I could do was hope that if I got ugly enough, he would dump me. But I had a feeling that he wouldn't. I had heard about guys like him. On the news and stuff. These people never quit. They never stopped. The girls that they were dating all ended up dead, or pregnant, or dumb and spineless and weak, with nothing but him to hold on to. I didn't want to end up like them. But what choice did I have?

I heard a knock on the door from downstairs. "I'll get it!" I yelled, and pulled my shirt back over my head, and yanked my jeans on, sucking in as I buttoned them. They didn't fit right any more. I took the steps two at a time, desperate for a distraction. It is a sad, sad story when you have nothing to do but examine yourself in the mirror when your boyfriend isn't around.

I threw open the door, and my jaw hit the floor.

Cocoa. She looked like herself this time, all decked in shredded jeans and t-shirt, lip ring and punked out hair. She rolled her heavily made-up eyes as she took in my expression. "Close your mouth." She told me. "You'll catch a fly."

I didn't close my mouth. It wasn't done being shocked yet.

"Well?" She asked me, raising a pierced eyebrow, "Are you gonna let me in?"

I closed my mouth. And the door. I leaned against it, breathing a sigh of relief. I'd rather be bored than have to deal with _her. _

"Who was _that?_" Lizzie asked me, peering over the top of the couch where she was watching _Charm School._

"No one important." I muttered. I wasn't in the mood for a chat.

But Lizzie continued to stare at me, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Hey, are you okay?" Se asked suddenly.

"Yeah," I said, a little too defensively. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Lizzie bit her lip, deliberating. "It's just…look, no offence or anything, but you've gained a teensy bit of weight, and your nose has been shiny, and all of a sudden you're wearing _make up, _but on your jaw of all places, not where you need it. Not that you need it." She added quickly before continuing her quest to destroy my self esteem. "And you are in your room even more than usual, and I didn't think that was _possible_, but apparently I was wrong, and you, of all people are getting wrapped up in your boyfriend. And I haven't seen that hot creep of yours that saved your ass that one time in months, and I used to see you guys together almost every day, and-"

That was about were I stopped listening. _I _knew that my life was going down the drain, but I didn't need to hear my airhead of a sister noticing. I trudged up the stairs, and opened my door.

Only to wish that I had just left it closed.

Cocoa was there, lounging across _my_ unmade bed, absentmindedly stroking _my_ dog, listening to _my_ ipod. Now, I like to think of myself as a fairly decent person. I mean, you know, I definitely have my issues, and the whole predicuce-against-werewolves-but-a-boyfriend-who-literally-kicks-me-when-I'm-already-down-is-just-fine thing didn't make me seem like a great person, but I do try. Most of the time. I mean, I go to church on Sundays. I don't steal. I've never made my mother cry. I haven't killed anybody. But a girl can only handle so much. I'd found out that mystical creatures existed. I'd been beat up by my boyfriend multiple times. I couldn't break up with him for fear of him doing much worse than punching. I'd become a friendless loser. I'd lost the few good looks that I had. And now a girl that I despised with every fiber of my being had broken into my room and was hanging out in it like she owned the place.

I like to think that after all that, I was justified in cracking.

I ran across the room and leapt onto the bed, scaring Papaya off of it. Then I proceeded to slap and kick Cocoa for all that I was worth, effectively relieving my frustrations. "HOW DARE YOU TAKE MY IPOD?! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET IN HERE?!" I screamed as I attacked. "I ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH TO DEAL WITHOUT-GOD!!! WHY CAN"T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

"Dude, chill," Cocoa mumbles, pushing me off her with ease. I had never been great with physical strength. Or anything physical, now that I think about it. "I'm not leaving. No matter what." She turns my ipod off. "So you can just get over it."

"What if I call the police?" I threatened. Not that I would ever do that. Or that I thought for a second that that would stop her. She didn't look like she was exactly a stranger to the law.

And I was right. "Ha," She snorted, "Been there, done that."

"Ugh," I moaned, rolling off the bed and putting my head in my hands in defeat. I was seriously beginning to stink at life. You know things are bad when you can't get a complete stranger to leave your room.

"You have killer taste in music, by the way." She added.

Killer? What the heck did that mean? "Is that good?" I asked her, not bothering to look up.

"Uh, yeah. The Veronicas rock."

Ahh, finally. Someone who understood.

"What song were you listening to?" I asked her, this time with interest.

"Forever. I was right at the good part, too. When they just play the guitar? And you went and ruined it by jumping on me."

I ignored that last part, instead choosing to ask her about other songs she liked. It turned out that we both adored the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, the All American Rejects, Avril Lavigne, and Skye Sweetnam. But she was a Gwen Stephanie fan, while I was Lady GaGa all the way. Which lead to an hour long dissection of both artist's lyrics and arrangements until we were eventually forced to call it a draw. Also, she was more U2, and I liked Bruce Springstein. But we didn't even get into that one, as both of them were well known geniuses. We just didn't see the point. After awhile, we got off the topic of music and started talking about other things. It turned out that she was actually kind of fun to talk to. It was a huge relief for me to be able to dish it out to some one without worrying that they were going to smash my face in if I went too far.

But then I got lazy. I was whearing a T-shirt that was way too big for me, and I'd stretched out across the bed, causing one of the sleeves to fall off my shoulder. Revealing one of my battle scars. Which Cocoa noticed.

Just my luck, right?

"How did that happen?" Cocoa asked me. Suspicious, like she already knew the answer.

"Oh, that?" I tried to look surprised as I scrambled for an excuse. My eyes caught the window, where hail was falling angrily from the sky. How had Cocoa managed to get up here in _that?_ Then I remembered that the streets had been iced over for the past couple of days. "Ice is never good for the uncoordinated." I was obviously the clumsy type, that shouldn't be too hard for her to believe.

That's what I thought, anyway. But Cocoa looked unconvinced.

_Brrrriiiiiing! _My cell phone.

"Get that." Cocoa commanded, examining her nails. "It's annoying."

I didn't like her tone. "No." I told her stubbornly. "Maybe I don't want to talk to the caller."

After a few more rings it stopped, and I lazily flipped it open to see who had called.

Hart. My palms started sweating. "Crap!" I whispered, fumbling with the buttons in my haste to call him back. I wasn't sure, having no personal experience, but I had heard that victims of an abusive relationship always answered their phone if they wanted to avoid a couple punches. I grimaced. I was a _victim _now. What had happened to me?

"I thought you didn't want to talk to anyone." Cocoa said coolly. Weird, but my haste to call Hart seemed to anger her. Good.

"Yeah," I said impatiently. "But that was my Boyfriend. He hates it when I don't answer."

At least, I was pretty sure her did. I tapped my fingers nervously, waiting for him to pick up.

"Okay,. I'm going to go then." Her voice was strangely subdued. "See ya later."

"Yeah, whatever. Maybe." I really didn't care at the moment.

Cocoa snorted, and headed for my balcony. Where the hail hadn't yet stopped. "You know you can use the front door." I told her.

"Yeah," Cocoa said dismissively as she lowered her self onto a branch on the tree outside my room. "But this is way more fun.

Fun? The girl was even more deranged than I was.

"Hello?" Hart's voice filled my ear. My heart stopped. He didn't sound happy.

"It's Cathryn," I whispered, bracing myself for the worst.

It came. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth and took all the crap he gave me without ever saying a word back. I hadn't done that since…well, never. In pre school I'd stuck my tongue out at the teacher.

I didn't think about Cocoa again until later that night when I went outside to admire my car for the billionth time.

Only to find it gone.

Of course, I knew immediately that it was her who had taken it. The lust in her eyes when we'd talked about it….

_"You realize you have five freakin awesome cars in your garage?"_

_"Yeah, I do. The Porsche is mine."_

What had I been thinking? You don't tell a seventeen year old juvenile delinquent without a license that you've got a beautiful unused vehicle just downstairs! If the hail scratched the paint, she was a dead woman.

I waited in the garage for her to return. Yeah, I know. Who's to say that she was planning on taking it back? And you're right. I didn't know that she wasn't halfway to Canada at this point. But something told me that she wasn't. I mean, she was obviously a bitch, but…steal my car? She wasn't _that _mean.

And I was right.

She came driving up the driveway in my gorgeous car about half an hour after I noticed it was gone. While I was relieved that she wasn't a soulless monster who would take away the one good thing in my life at the moment, anger was still the dominant emotion when she got out.

"My God Cocoa!" I screeched. "Can't you keep your filthy hands off MY stuff?!"

"I could." Cocoa said calmly, closing the door. "If your stuff wasn't so cool."

"Get. Out." I told her through gritted teeth. "Don't come back."

For some reason, not being able to come here again upset her. My stuff wasn't _that _great. Of course, to somebody who was currently living on their friend's couch…I couldn't judge. "Whoa whoa whoa," She held her hands up the way criminals do when the police pull a gun on them in T.V. shows. "Lets not get hasty. I will, uh," She drew a deep breath, as though it caused her actual pain to say what came out of her mouth next. "try to make it up to you."

Yeah. That was gonna happen. "Ha!" I laughed humorlessly. "What are you going to do? _Not_ break into my house? _Not_ steal my car?"

And, yeah, I know that I may have been being hard on her, and she returned it and everything, but I was way past my limit here. I had used up all my patience on the phone with Hart.

Cocoa, however, had an answer ready. And she knew my weakness. "Free star bucks for a day."

Tempting. But a _day? _"A month." I demanded.

"Uh, no." She gave me a get-serious look. "A week. If I get to drive the car again."

I could deal with that. "Fine." I told her. "Well, I'll think about the car thing." I tacked on as an afterthought.

"Good." Cocoa said. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow then."

"Duh," I snorted. I wouldn't be wasting a single second of free coffee.


	10. Chapter 10

25 Outside Keep Holding on- Avril Lavigne

"Hey! Cathryn!"

I jumped, falling off my skateboard. The voice was vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite remember….I turned around. It was Collin, catching up to me easily. "Are you all right?" He asked anxiously.

I looked down. The scrapes on my legs from when Hart had pushed me had been almost healed, but the fall had taken the scabs off, and both of my knees were now oozing blood. "Sure." I grumbled without looking at him. "I'm peachy."

A par of very warm hands picked me up off the ground and dusted me off. "You're bleeding." Collin informed me.

"I hadn't noticed." I said.

Collin bit his lip, looking nervous for some reason. But he said nothing.

I had never been one to fall for the strong silent type.

"What?" I demanded, putting my hands on my hips and tilting my head back so that I could look him in the eyes.

"Look," he began cautiously. "I know you're kind of mad at us and all, but-"

"I'm not mad at _you. _I don't know you. It wasn't your job to tell me anything." I interrupted. Not that I was still mad at the ones that _were _expected to let me in on the secret, but whatever. I checked my watch. The high school classes hadn't been let out yet. Collin must have been skipping. I hoped Hart wasn't. If he was already waiting on me in the parking lot, he'd see me with Collin. And he'd assume I was flirting. And for that, he'd give me what I 'deserved'.

"-help?" Collin finished, looking at me expectantly.

Only I had no idea what he'd just said. "Um…what now?" I asked him. I was really making a great first impression.

Collin sighed, looking frustrated. Poor guy. He obviously wasn't any more comfortable talking with me than I was with him. "I just heard that you were having some trouble in French. I thought I could help."

I blinked up at him for a moment. He wasn't asking me out. I knew that much. He was genuinely concerned. Not about my grades, though. More about me socially. He wanted me to get tight with the pack again.

Well, that made two of us.

The bell rang, and seniors poured out of the high school doors and into various cars, off to either McDonalds or Star Bucks, the only two places to eat within a close enough distance to the school. Hart would be among them.

"Yeah." I tried to smile. "Thanks. Uh, could you come over at, like, four this Thursday?"

"Sure. Great." Collin grinned. "Later."

"Right," I said distractedly. I didn't _think _he was out yet…maybe I was safe. "Bye."

I realize that I may have been a bit mopey lately, what with all the crappy things that have happened to me. And I apologize for that. Because I failed to remember that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Good things happen to those who wait. All of that. I have been truly blessed. Not even kidding. I couldn't have planned it better myself.

So I was just snoring away in my bed at ten thirty in the morning, you know, the usual Saturday rutein, despite the fact that Collin was supposed to come and hept me some more with French, due to the fact that he had come on Thursday as planned and we had both discovered that I had retained NOTHING all year. Anyway, I was all snug in my bed, dreaming about being somebody else, when Leslie bangs open my door and comes storming in, all frenzy-like.

"Cathryn!" She exclaimed, thumping me in the head.

"Uhhhnng. What?" I groaned, sitting up groggily.

"I," Leslie declared, throwing herself dramatically across my bed. "Am finished. I mean it. I've reached my limit."

I squinted at her for a second, trying to work out what she said. "Limit for what?"

"YOU!" Leslie sat up again, so quickly that it was shocking. "You've been avoiding me. All of us, actually. And we don't know why. Or at least I don't. Its like, we were best friends one second, then we didn't even know each other the next. I mean, what happened? And frankly, I don't like who you're turning into. Who is this Harty guy? He seems a little...eh. I mean, I'm not one to judge, but I do go to class with him, and stuff. When he decides to show up. He's not a good guy, Cat. And you just completely ditched all of us for him!" She shook her head sadly, winding down from her little speech. "I just don't get it."

I stared at her. "And you couldn't have said all this a little later? You know, when I'm coherent?" I asked her finally.

Leslie glared.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'm sorry. Seriously, I am. But there were some things involved that…its complicated."

"I think I can keep up." Leslie told me.

Don't freak out. I didn't tell her about werewolves. I told her about Hart and his incredibly convincing fists. Anybody would stay with him after having a nice long talk with those. Or at least, I meant to. But we were kind of interrupted.

It was Cocoa, naturally, pulling twigs from my tree out of her hair as she opened the doors and plopped down on my bed right next to Leslie, making herself at home. Leslie's eyes widened. Poor girl. She really wasn't used to dealing with people like Cocoa and I. "You know," I said. "You really could use the door. I would have let you in."

"You said that last time. But climbing the tree is so much more fun." She leaned carelessly back onto my pillows.

"Its getting annoying." I informed her. Like when I'm having guests over.

"Ahh, hi Cocoa." Leslie said hesitantly, recovering.

"Sup," Cocoa responded a little distastefully.

"Don't you, uh, hang out with Collin?" Leslie asked, still timid.

"Yup." Cocoa's tone was not encouraging, but I knew that Leslie didn't need to be encouraged when it came to Collin. She'd interview Cocoa about him until Cocoa killed her. Which wouldn't take long, as she looked ready to do it already.

Oh, God. Collin. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. Ten forty-five. Collin would be here any second. Leslie would have a heart attack. It would kill her. And Collin was a sweet guy; he didn't need murder on his conscience. I had to get her out of here.

"Leslie, listen. I really appreciate you coming down here and all. I've been wanting to talk too. And we will. Soon. But I've really got a lot going on, and-"

_Ding, Dong._

"Crap," I whispered, and headed to the head of the stairs. Cocoa and Leslie followed suit. You could see the front door from where we were, despite the two floors difference. The shadow outside was huge. It was definitely Collin. "Come in," I called warily.

Collin came in, hands in his pockets. He glanced up towards my room. His eyes fall on me first, then Cocoa, then Leslie. I heard her sharp intake of breath. "Oh, God," She whimpered.

But I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. I was busy looking at Colin. He was staring at Leslie, gaping openly. The way he looked at her…it was familiar, somehow. Like the way Sam looked at Emily, and Seth looked at Keilly, but…something else. I'd seen that look before on someone else, it felt like. I couldn't quite place it.

Leslie broke apart form Cocoa and I and started to hide back in my room. Suddenly, though, I lost patience. It just disgusted me, you know? Collin, regardless of the freakish way he looked at her, was obviously just as in love with her as she was with him. So what was the problem? I so wasn't in the mood to cover for Leslie while she snuck out my balcony Cocoa-style.

So I did what I now consider to be one of the best decisions I ever made. I grabbed her wrist, and yanked her harshly back towards the stair case, expecting her to fall. And I was right. She stumbled about halfway down, a look of such utter panic on her face that I actually felt bad for a minute, but then Collin rushed up and caught her, cradling her against his chest like she was a child. Or the most precious thing in the world.

I'm telling you, I witnessed love at first sight. It was enough to make people of weaker stuff than myself and Cocoa break down in sobs. Major Kodak moment. And you can't tell me that I'm over reacting, because Cocoa was standing right next me, looking totally disgusted the whole time, so I know it was real.

It feels good to be nice.

And, okay, Collin finding love may have repulsed Cocoa so greatly that she decided to move from his couch to my balcony and has been there ever since, but I can handle that. She's actually not that bad. For the most part. And now Collin will probably tell her about the legends being real, but she won't react the way I did. I know that much. She's too nice. Plus, there is no way she would ever leave Collin, regardless of his species.

I know, I know. This is a lot to assume about one little look. But you weren't there, now, were you? Leslie will be having Collin's children a decade from now, I'd bet my life on it.

I was young again. Like, really young. Maybe two or three. And I was back at my house in Gainesville. The whole world looked huge and magical again, and for me, the whole world was my big white lake house and the pond in the backyard. I was running along its bank, chasing my puppy. Notice I wrote _my_, not _a_, despite the fact that the puppy in question was not Papaya or any other dog I'd had in my life. But that was one of the biggest details that I remember. The puppy was, completely and permanently, _mine._

He was quite adorable, as far as puppies go. He was real tiny, and chubby, and almost as clumsy on his baby legs as I was. He wasn't gray, exactly. But not white either. Sort of like a combination of the two. And he was covered in teeny black dots. Salt and pepper, I'd guess you'd call it. The salt and pepper fur was light and fluffy and beautiful. His eyes were, too. Big and dark and intelligent.

He was quite possibly the most adorable animal I'd ever seen in my toddler life. And, like most young girls, when I saw a cute animal, I wanted to pet it. So I stumbled clumsily toward it, my pudgy fingers outstretched. But my puppy seemed to have other plans. As soon as he saw my intentions, he turned and trotted away, his tail wagging and his tongue hanging comically out of his mouth.

I chased him. But I was so small, I couldn't catch him. But he always stayed within my reach, so close that it gave me the motivation to keep running. Then, suddenly, he veered off, off of the bank and into the woods. I followed him, not realizing the dangers of the forest in all my childlike innocence.

Slowly, though, the scene changed. My puppy changed. His paws grew, big and strong and muscular, until the prints he left in the dirt could easily be mistaken for a lion's or some other beast. In fact, his entire body grew. Before I knew it, he was as big as a horse, a bear, a truck. His fur changed, losing it's fluffiness and becoming more like a coat, something used for protection, not show. His fur darkened, turning into a dark dark gray. His black spots all but disappeared, they were only on his back now. He grew fangs around the tongue that remained dangling out of his mouth.

As he grew, so did my desire for him. Instead of being frightened, or even repulsed, getting to him became my heart's desire, something I wanted more than anything in the world. Only it wasn't a want anymore. It was a need. I needed my puppy to come to me, to stay with me, to protect me from the fearsome forest, and everything else in the world.

Because my childhood was fading as my desire grew, and along with it my ignorance. I could feel myself changing, just like my puppy had. My legs lengthened, became thinner and stronger. I lost all my baby fat, and gained freckles. My hair grew longer, it whipped against my face in the wind. But despite the fact that I was older, I still didn't understand why I needed this animal so badly. Why it was _this _creature, and not another. Or any other.

I just knew that I did. That giving up would be like giving up my life. So I ran until I couldn't breathe, until my eyes teared up, until my feet felt like they were made of lead. But I kept going. And my puppy did too, but he always stayed close to me, speeding up and slowing down when I did, instinctively seeming to know my limits.

Then, as quickly as they had began, the woods ended. My puppy burst out of the trees, and kept going, over the mossy meadow in front of us, weaving his way in and out of the various yards in the neighborhood we had come to. Of course, I wasn't as coordinated. The shock of coming out of the forest sent me falling flat on my face into the ground, getting a mouthful of damp grass for my efforts. Lovely.

I didn't care. I scrambled up, my eyes raking my surroundings desperately, searching for him, barely noticing that I was no longer in Gainesville, but my yard that I had currently, in La Push. But I couldn't find him.

The wolf had gone.

I gasped, and bolted upright in my bed. The clock read four oh-five in the morning. You would think, wouldn't you, that after having a nightmare so many times that it would lose some of its original horror? Apparently not. I was still just as freaked as I had been the first time, a couple of months ago. I had had this dream every night since my unsuccessful attempt to dump Hart.

The thing that got me was that, instead of feeling exasperated or tired once the initial shock wore off, I was still terrified. My subconscious still wanted the wolf, despite the fact that my conscious knew that it wasn't real, and that if he was, he definitely wasn't some one that I would ever want to encounter.

Logically.

But in the back of my head, I would always lay back down wishing for my puppy. Like he really did exist, somewhere out there.


	11. Chapter 11

I like to think that the turning point came for me about a month after Cocoa moved into my balcony. I've got to say, I was a little disappointed with how long it took. I mean, I guess I shouldn't be, what with it taking like years for some girls, but I thought that I could have done better. You know, figured out that I didn't have to suffer in silence forever. Because I didn't. Obviously.

Seriously. What is with these abusive boyfriends and brainwashing?

Anyway. It started on Saturday afternoon, during my driving lesson with Jake. I must say, I was coming along very nicely. Jacob agreed with me. I'd just succeeded in driving my Porsche all the way around the block without Jacob having to remind me to stay in the right lane or grab the steering wheel out of my hands and swerve to avoid turning my beloved vehicle into a pretzel. Which had been happening alarmingly often.

Anyway, I pulled back into Dowling's and Jacob and I held our breath while I parked and when I didn't crash or knock anything over, we both freaked out.

"Oh my God! I did it! Jake, I did it!" I squealed, clapping my hands together. I am ashamed to say that I had never looked more like a spastic cheerleading elementary schooler than I had at that moment. I mean, I guess I had good reason, but still. It was a fairly disgusting display of pep.

Jacob laughed, leaning away from me in order to preserve his eardrums. "That was awesome." He agreed.

I threw my arms around his neck. "I parked it!"

"And you didn't kill us!"

"Or the car!"

I was so exited; it took me a minute to register him. He was leaning all casually against his car, talking to one of the mechanics that Jacob got to boss around. He had to pick _today, _of all days, to see about the health of his van. The one day that I hugged Jacob. And of course he glanced away from the mechanic and at my car at _just _the right time, and saw me laughing all elated in Jacob's arms.

I pulled away as soon as I saw him looking, and suddenly learning to drive didn't seem all that great anymore.

"What is it?" Jacob asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he took in my expression. He looked over his shoulder. "Who is that?" He asked me.

"My boyfriend." I choked around the lump in my throat. I knew exactly what this would look like to him. Exactly what he would do as soon as he got me alone.

Jacob tilted his head to the side. "I'm not sure, but I _think _you're supposed to be happy when you see your significant other." He informed me.

"He is _not _my significant other!" I snapped. "He's not my significant anything!"

"Sorry! Geez." Jacob held his hands up in resignation. He looked quite amused by this turn of events. "What's his name?"

"Why do you want to know?" I hissed.

"I'm curious. My God." He sounded a bit miffed this time.

"Hart." I sighed, giving in.

Jacob reached over and honked the horn. "Hart!" He yelled.

Hart lifter his chin slightly and narrowed his eyes. But he walked over, unfortunately. "Hey, Cat." He said, his voice dangerously soft.

Jacob, of course, didn't notice.

"Hi." I said, my voice just as soft as he was. But from lack of air, not anger. I seemed to be having some trouble breathing.

Hart looked at Jacob. "You guys done here?" He asked smoothly. "I can take her home. My car's gotta stay here."

"Sure, sure," Jacob said easily, and got out. I did too, circling around the front and getting in the passenger's side. Hart got in the drivers seat and turned the key. The Porsche roared to life.

"I'll see you later, Jake." I mumbled, rolling the window down.

"Yeah," Jacob responded, still totally innocent of the fact that he'd just basically thrown me into the mouth of a lion's den. Like in the bible story. Maybe if I prayed hard enough, Hart wouldn't kill me.

Hart rolled out of the parking lot. He kept his eyes on the road, but his fists clenched the steering wheel, and every so often his jaw would tense, and I would see that vein pop out in his forehead, just like it had the first time he hit me.

I was so dead.

About an hour later, I stumbled in my front door with my head down, trying not to bring attention to myself. Nobody needed to see me now. I climbed slowly up the two flights of stairs into my bedroom, wincing with each step. When I got to my landing, I opened the door and slipped in as quickly as possible.

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and thought about how fat you were? Or how un-muscular? And how all these people had way better bodies than you? And then you spend like seven hours the next day doing sit-ups, or running, or bench pressing things, or whatever? And you know how the day after that, you're really, really sore?

Yeah. I felt about twenty times worse than that.

Everything hurt. And I mean _everything._ My arms felt like they were about to fall off. My legs felt like they already had. My neck was sore from turning my head so quickly and harshly whenever Hart slapped me. Which had happened quite a few times. My old bruises that had almost healed were now throbbing. But they didn't feel half as bad as the new ones. I could barely see, my eyes were so puffy from crying.

You want to know what I hate? Its feeling powerless. Like no matter what you do, nothing will ever change. Like you're the one that has to take all the crap and smile like its not killing you to do it. And I'd never felt more powerless in my entire life. Not when I'd found out that my best friends had lied to me. Not when I found out that we were moving across the country. Not even when My dad died.

I closed my eyes, letting my whole body sag against the door. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. Only I couldn't. I couldn't pretend that I didn't hate my life. I couldn't pretend that I didn't hate my boyfriend. I couldn't pretend that I _did _hate the pack.

But what choice did I have?

I opened my eyes to find that I was seeing red. Now I was powerless and angry. Bad combination, it turns out. I seized a framed picture on the wall next to me and hurled it across my room. I watched as it hit my lamp and both tumbled to the floor, the glass breaking against the hardwood.

Huh. I liked it, for some reason. Seeing things break, not being the one breaking. Me being the tormenter, for once. I took a couple CD's off my bookshelf and hurled them across the room too, laughing as when they made dents in the wall. I spent the next ten or so minutes breaking anything I could get my hands on, just running off some steam. I must have looked deranged. You know, looking back, I probably _was _deranged. I mean, what do you call a girl who stays with her boyfriend whom she does not love despite the fact that he hits her? What do you call a girl who was running around her room, laughing as she destroyed it?

At least, I was laughing until I saw the picture. The first thing I'd thrown. The glass covering had completely shattered, and I could see the faces of me, Quil, Claire, and Embry grinning up at me. I squinted at it for a moment, trying to remember when it had been taken. It had been so long since I'd said a civil word to any of them….

"Wait. Could you drop me off at the Young's, instead of my place? I've got to baby-sit today." I asked Embry as he turned the corner leading into my neighborhood.

"Sure." Embry responded.

We pulled up to their house. The Young's car was no longer in the driveway. Instead, it had been replaced with Quil's car, which was in similar shape as Embry's.

"Quil's here." Embry remarked.

"Really. I hadn't noticed." I said, my voice dripping the sarcasm that Embry had very quickly gotten used to. "You wanna come in? It looks like the Mrs. Young didn't want to be late for Blaire's appointment."

"Yeah." Embry smiled.

As soon as we reached the front porch, the door flew open and Claire came rocketing out. "Kitteeee!" She squealed, throwing her arms around my waist and burrowing her face in my stomach.

Embry and I shook our heads in amazement. We'd both come to learn that there were two sides of Claire. The Quil's Claire, and Every-body-else's Claire. She was so much louder, so much more self assured when he was around. It was weird. Like Quil was some sort of battery that charged her.

"Hey, Guys." Quil appeared, leaning casually against the door frame. His eyes were, as usual, on Claire.

"Hey, Quil." I grinned up at him. "Wha-"

"Wait! Claire, don't touch that!" Embry reached over quickly and plucked his camera out of Claire's grubby hands. "Whether or not I graduate depends on this thing." He told her.

"How'd she even get a hold of it?" I asked him.

"The little bugger reached into my pocket when I wasn't paying attention and took it." Embry shook his head sadly. "She's diabolical. And she's got you two," He nodded at Quil and I, "under her spell."

"Claire would never do that." Quil said, scooping Claire up into his muscular arms. "Would you, Claire-bear?"

Claire smiled angelically at him "Please can we take a picture?" She asked him.

Quil threw a pleading glance at Embry. "Please can we take a picture?" He asked. Of course he was slave to whatever Claire wanted.

Embry rolled his eyes, seeming to think the same thing. "Sure, Clairedy-Cat," He said, adopting the nick name that I used for her. "What do you want to take a picture of?"

"All of us." She told him.

So I hopped on Embry's back and Quil leaned in, still holding Claire, so that Embry could get all of us in. "Smile, you guys." He said.

Staring at that picture drained away all my anger. Now there was only sad. I missed them all so much. I sank down, leaning against my bed, and allowed myself one sob. Which turned into two. Which turned into a full-blown crying jag. Or at least it probably would have. If it weren't for the lovely Cocoa, butting her head into business that wasn't hers, as per usual.

She came storming in, her black hair flying. "WHAT THE HECK?!" She screamed, getting right in my face. "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SO BAD THAT YOU NEED TO _CRY _ABOUT IT?"

I'd forgotten that she lived on my balcony now. She had, apparently, seen the whole display. And the only part she opposed to was my crying. What, I ask you, kind of sense did that make? Crying was the only normal reaction I'd had to this whole stupid thing! I stopped crying real fast. Because the anger was back.

"How bout the only person in the world that is currently saying civil things to you and _not _getting paid for it beating you up and threatening your life?" I asked her icily. "Because that's what happened today."

"Ugh." Cocoa glared at the wall above my head. "I knew that butt hole was hitting you." She told me.

There are times when I kind of like Cocoa. When hanging out with somebody who is even more bad ass than I am is refreshing. This, however, was not one of those times. "If you don't leave in the next three seconds," I said, still using the cold tone. "I swear to God I'll go downstairs and tell my parents that a sixteen year old drop out is living on my balcony."

Cocoa sat down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling, looking bored. "I told you before. I. Don't. Care."

"Ugh!" I growled. "God, I hate you!"

"Good." Cocoa sat up and looked at me with a very business like expression on her face. "Now. Tell me what happened."

"No!" I snorted. "Mind your own business."

"Oh, good God." Cocoa threw her hands up, exasperated. "Loose the theatrics and tell me what the heck happened! Or, you know, you don't have to. I don't really care. Just break up with him. Hit him back. Piece of cake."

I raised an eyebrow, peeved that she would think I'd just taken the torture in silence. "You think I haven't already tried that?" I asked her.

"Well, couldn't you, like, get a bodyguard or something?"

"Right." I said. "Who is going to want to baby-sit a thirteen year old girl? I asked her.

"Uh, _Embry._" Cocoa said, as if the answer were pathetically obvious. "Duh."

I was not in the mood to be reminded of one of the people I missed most. Cocoa may be annoying, but I had to hand it to her, She'd gotten what she wanted out of me. No more pity party. "Why is everybody always talking about _Embry? _I exploded. "What does _Embry _have to do with anything?"

"Uh, nothing." Cocoa's eyes widened. "Just forget it." She got up and left, just as quickly as she'd came. I thought for a minute about following her, but decided it wasn't worth it. I had too much cleaning up to do. I doubted my room could have been in worse shape if a tornado had gone through it.

I jerked awake, visions of the gray wolf once again on the brain. Only, it was too early. The wolf was still a puppy. I was still a toddler. We were still in Florida. I heard a beeping sound come from my bedside table, and my cell phone lit up. That must have been what woke me up. I sat up groggily and grabbed it, flipping it open.

According to the little screen, I now had so many missed calls that if I didn't check them and I got anymore they would all be deleted. I sighed, and navigated through until I got to my missed calls.

"Ah!" I screamed and dropped my phone.

There was no way. _No way._ You just don't get that many. I mean, I'd abandoned all of my friends, I expected a few…but that many? Impossible. People didn't even _like _me. But there it was, in that little technical-ish font they always use for cell phones. One-hundred and twenty-seven missed calls. I scrolled down slowly, gaping. One from Claire and Blaire. One from Sam and Emily. Six from Jacob. Nine from Quil. Fourteen from Keilly. Eleven from Seth. Eight from Drew. Four from Brady. Seven from Collin, all of which I expected were made on Leslie's behalf, as they had all happened since he'd fallen gaga for her. Twenty-one from Leslie herself, the sweatheart. And….

Sixty-five. _Sixty-five. _SIXTY-FIVE!!! I had sixty five calls from Embry. Thirty-nine of which he'd left messages for. I quickly switched to voice-mail. Maybe some one had died. That was the only explanation I could think of as to why he'd call me that much. Or maybe he had cancer, or something. But something big had to have happened. I mean, he had a life. Granted, I didn't know too much about it, but he was a twenty year old guy with an eight pack who was graduating college this year and about to become something that paid _major _cash who was currently living in a frat house with two other good looking guys. Not to mention the whole werewolf-protector-against-the-cold-ones-and-all-that-is-evil stuff. It wasn't like he had nothing in his life but me. So something had to have happened.

Yeah. Nothing happened, as I figured out twenty minutes later after listening to all of the messages that my friends had left me. Some of them were apologetic. Some of them were angry. Some of them were groveling, shamelessly begging for me to come back to the pack. A few of Quil's were suspicious, hurling question's at me about Hart. Was he college-bound? Was he _jail _bound? Had he already been? What was his home life situation? Was he, or was he not a devil worshipper? I swear to God, he sounded like my Dad. Or a jealous ex-boyfriend. Too bad he had just the right idea. Some were really weird, just sort of wistfully telling me what had happened that day, or last week. Those were the ones that hurt the most. Had I been _that _mean? To the point where they were past even acknowledging something was wrong, and were settling for a friendship with my phone? Embry had a little of everything, but a lot of them were the last kind.

I bit my lip, closing my phone and laying back down. I guess I deserved it. I was way due for a guilt trip. One thing I did not handle well. I preferred to just skip that part, and make things better right away once I realized I'd done something that was too far, even for me. But this time it was unavoidable. This was going to take more than a few well-worded apologies to fix.

First, I was going to have to dump Hart. How I was going to do that without him strangling me or suffocating me in my sleep or poisoning my drink I had no idea. I was just going to have to wing it. Something I did so often that most of the time it actually worked. Although I usually dealt with things like turning homework in late without the teacher noticing, not breaking up with my emotionally unstable boyfriend, but whatever. And I was going to have to do it soon. Tomorrow was a Saturday, but Hart and I were having dinner, so I'd seen him then. I'd do it then, when there were witnesses.

Then I was going to have to apologize. No, not apologize. _Grovel. _Beg. Plead, on bended knee. Bribe. Bribe with what, I didn't know, as I was broke and had been living off of Hart's gifts for the past three months. But I would find something. And even then, I wouldn't blame them if they hated me for the rest of eternity. Which was a very real possibility, as werewolves could live forever.

Oh, well. At least I could say that I'd tried.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 26 Done Over You-Daughtry

"You two ready for the bill?" Our waitress asked us, sauntering over and looking at Hart in the rather…appreciative manner in which she had all night.

"Yeah, I think so," Hart responded, giving her the once-over right back.

I sat there and steamed. Oh, so I couldn't be taught to drive by somebody else, but he could flirt to his heart's content?

Okay, I admit it. I haven't dumped him yet. It's just…the subject never really came up, and I was still in pain from last night's little temper tantrum. I was still going to do it. I swear. I just…hadn't gotten around to it yet.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and glanced at the screen. Another voicemail. I pressed the phone to my ear and listened.

"Who was it?" Hart asked me once I'd put it back. His voice was calm on the surface, but my practiced ears could tell whether or not Hart was jealous from miles away.

I looked up and stared at him, biting my lip. See, now was the perfect time. I would tell him who it was, and that I'd been cheating on him, or whatever it was that he was convinced I'd been doing. We'd be in public. He wouldn't be able to do anything. Right? "Embry." I told him softly."

Anger flashed in his eyes, but he didn't move. Thank God. "You were right about him." I said, trying to look sad or guilty or whatever it is people feel when they're telling some one that they've been cheating. "I can't do this anymore. Take me home, please."

There. He should have gotten the message.

Hart stood up and took me by the hand, leading me out of the restauraunt. Anybody whatching it would have seen it as tender, protective. Here's the thing though. Hart? Yeah, he was cutting off my circulation. Maybe I should have just left a message on his phone or something….

As soon as we were outside, he started moving faster, yanking me harshly so that I stumbled, trying to keep up. When I tripped, he grabbed me by the hair and slammed me up against the wall. I'd never seen him like this. Not last night, not the time I'd said Embry's name, not when I'd tried to dump him. Now though, he was beyond words. Beyond reasoning. He held me there for a second, just looking at me cringe with every rise and fall of his chest when he breathed. I _really _wished he would just let me go and get to the punching already. My head was probably bleeding from being scraped against the brick, and it _hurt._

Then I'd gotten what I'd wanted, and I wished he was still holding me against the wall. He punched me with more force than I would have thought possible, the force of it slamming me against the brick. My head spun. My body throbbed. And there was a searing pain right above my cheekbone. "I let out a choked moan. "Hart, sto-" I start to plead, holding my arms in front of my body in defence.

Lets just say he didn't like that too much.

He grabbed both my hands and pinned them to my sides and kicked my in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I doubled over in pain, slinking out of Harts grasp to huddle against the dumpster-so, so gross, but better than the alternative-and putting my hands over my head.

Then Hart hit his stride, doing what he'd done almost every time he hit me. He started kicking. Again and again, my body hit the brick, each time hurting more than the last. I could have screamed. Somebody probably would have heard. I could have kicked him back. I was in the perfect position to get him in his you-know-where. But I didn't. For once, I didn't want to fight back. I couldn't. I was tired of defending myself. Tired of him. Tired of my life, tired of everything. I just wanted it all to be over, for it all to end….

And then, suddenly, it did. God knows how, cause the way Hart was going, he probably would have kept it up for hours. But suddenly the kicking stopped, andI heard Hart back up, pressing me into the trash can. "Shit." He muttered.

And then I wasn't tired anymore. Funny how that works, isn't it? I peered around Hart's legs to see a pair of giant bare feet, and another pair of smaller feet encased in a wicked pair of converse. I look up slowly, past the legs and the body, until I could make out the faces of Quil and Cocoa.

Quil has just enough time to look at Hart in such an evil fashion that it would have made the devil squirm before kneeling over to pick me up in his arms, cradling me against his scorching body. "You alright?" He whispered gruffly.

I nodded into his chest.

I heard a crunch that sounded suspiciously like a bone breaking and a muffled cry from Hart, mingled with a delighted-_giggle? _Cocoa knew how to _laugh?_- from Cocoa. "You get her to the car, alright?" Quil says to Cocoa.

Dang. You know, as far as rescuers go, Quil and Cocoa were pretty suckish. After Quil set me down, Cocoa sort of took me by the elbow and dragged me to the car . Like I couldn't walk just fine on my own. I wasn't _that _injured. She opened the door and tried to help me in backseat, but I ignored her. Cocoa being gentle was just too weird for me.

"Great guy you got there," She commented once she was in the driver's seat. "Where'd you get him, back of a cop car?"

I was grateful and all, what with her saving my life-probably-and punching my boyfriend, something I'd been wanting to do for _forever, _but I really didn't want to listen to her. "Shut up." I told her. God, did my voice really sound _that _bad? Like I'd been crying or something. Which, I will admit, I was very close to at this point. But I wasn't letting Cocoa see me cry _twice._ I'd rather throw myself off a cliff. And not for recreation, either. "I'm _so _not in the mood."

"All I have to say is," Cocoa said in an annoyingly condescending voice as she started the car. "Told. You. So."

"That's never all you have to say." I growled.

"It is for now." Cocoa said, glancing over her shoulder at me as she pulled out of the restaurant and started driving…in the opposite direction of my home.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, suddenly on guard. I twisted around in my seat-ignoring the searing pain in my side as I did so-and searched desperately for Quil. Surely he wouldn't leave me alone with her….Only he was a little preoccupied, as it turned out. With beating the crap out of Hart.

"The Cullen residence," Cocoa responds, ignoring my tone.

The Cullen residence. The name sounded familiar somehow…. "Why?" I demanded.

"Cause doc lives there. And Alice'll clean you up so Embry doesn't freak."

Again with the Embry thing. "Why would Embry even care?" I asked her, way peeved at this point. I needed a distraction, or I would end up strangling her with a tie I'd found under my seat. It still had the tag on it, and looked completely ancient. Oviously, Quil wasn't the type for formalities. "Isn't this Quil's truck?" I asked her.

"He has a way home," Cocoa said lazily, brushing me off.

I seethed. What was with her and steeling cars?

Suddenly, there was I loud thud from the back of the car. I jumped about a mile, yelling in shock. I admit, for a split second I thought it was Hart. You know, coming back to kill me and all that. But it turned out to only be Quil. He, I soon discovered, had quite the temper. "Cocoa!" He snarled. "Get the hell out of my truck!"

"Shoot! Stupid car don't have locks!" Cocoa muttered, fumbling with the switches on the door.

Quil appeared at the window out of nowhere. He opened the driver's door and picked Cocoa up, despite her struggling, and pushed her out of the car. Without stopping the car. Or even slowing it down. That, my friends, takes true talent of which I have not seen since said incident. Cocoa scrambled to her feet, sputtering just about every curse she could think of at top volume. Quil sped up, eager to leave her behind.

"You okay?" He asked me.

"Yeah," I replied listlessly. "Fine." You know, aside from the fact that I was being driven to a stranger's house where said strangers will be told that I let my boyfriend slap me around like some sort of spineless wuss by a giant dog that probably hates my guts. And, you know, that I was covered with bruises and scrapes, some old and some just forming, but all painful. Other than that though, I was perfect.

We drove for a while in silence. Slowly I noticed that the buildings, though there weren't many in the first place, were thinning out. And the buildings that were there were getting bigger. Then, as if appearing out of thin air, a road appeared turning off into the woods. Quil took that one, and drove another couple miles before coming to a clearing. The yard was ginormous, the grass all smooth and luscious and perfectly cut. My stepfather's dream lawn. But I didn't pay much attention to the yard. It was the _house _that was ridiculous. It was three stories, like mine, but much wider, and about three thousand times more fancy. All white, kind of like those big ranch houses you always see in those old timey movies, but at the same time unmistakably modern. Quil cut the engine, and opened my door, trying to help me out. But he was just as helpless when it came to that sort of thing as Cocoa. He did nothing but get in my way.

The door opened before we got a chance to knock. Standing in the doorway was an angel. Seriously. There was truly no other explanation for that kind of beauty. He was tall, though not near as tall as any of the wolves. Muscular, but not in the gross obsessive way. He had wavy bronzish red-brown hair that fell jauntily over one eye. His skin was so totally pale and flawless that it hurt to look at. And every feature was completely proportional, totally straight and perfect.

My heart skipped a beat.

"Hey, Edward." Quil said.

_Edward._ I needed this guy in my life.My eyes went immediately to his hands. A ring. Dang. He already had a bride.

Edward nodded to Quil, but his gaze went to me. His eyes were unreadable, but I got the impression that he was scrutinizing me, making a mental note of every bruise, every scrape. And that he was very, very angry. Suddenly, he looked up at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

I decided that maybe I didn't have to steal this guy away from his wife. He was a little weird for me. The corner of his mouth twitched. It looked like he was holding back a laugh. Then he glanced up at Quil. "I used to make them pay." He murmured softly. "Men like Hart."

The hairs rose on my arms. I had a feeling that getting on this guy's bad side would not be a good thing. "Come in." He said softly, stepping aside.

"Nah," Quil shook his head. "I gotta call…" He let his voice trail off, but Edward seemed to understand. Even if I didn't.

"Cathryn," he said.

I looked over my shoulder at Quil, throwing him a pleading glace. If he left me with these people to fend for myself, he was going to wish that Hart _had _strangled me when I was through with him.

Edward chuckled.

A woman appeared at his side. I jumped. I hadn't heard any footsteps…. She was every bit as beautiful as Edward, with the same pale skin and perfect features and smoldering golden eyes. She was a few inches shorted than me and had dark brown hair falling in soft ringlets down her shoulders. "Edward?" She asked, touching his arm. It was obvious that she was his wife. The way that they looked at each other was just as nauseating as Emily and Sam.

Edward's lips moved quickly, too fast and soft for me to understand. But the girl seemed to get the message. She smiled at me a little hesitantly. "I'm Bella." She said.

Yet another gorgeous person appeared, just as suddenly as Bella had. She was the smallest girl I'd ever seen in my life, and _so _thin, with jet black hair sticking up in spikes around her face. "Hello, Cathryn." She said, giving me a dazzling smile. "I'm Alice."

It occurred to me that these people probably shouldn't know my name. Yet I couldn't really bring myself to care a whole lot.

Alice took me by the arm and led me into the house.

I looked around me in wonder. I couldn't seem to let myself look at any one thing for more than three seconds, there was always something-or someone-even more magnificent distracting me. The house was even bigger than it had looked from the outside, with glass for a back wall. Which was kid of dumb, in my opinion. I mean,. this _was _the Olympic Peninsula, after all. Rain and storms not stop, and all that? What if lightning hit a tree, or something, and that tree crashed into their house? The house would be reduced to ruble.

Then there was the _people. _In addition to Edward, Alice, and Bella, there were three other guys and three other girls, including Renesmee. I grimaced. It hadn't occurred to me that she'd be here. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with her and her snobby attitude. I heard a small hiss from behind me. It was Edward. He no longer looked beautiful. He glared at me with undisguised loathing. I shrank back a little against Alice. She whacked him on the shoulder. "You saw what happens." She told him meaningfully.

He rolled his eyes. "We saw what _might _happen." He corrected her.

"Nope. This one's rock solid." She looked back at me, and gave me another encouraging smile. "Carlisle is going to make sure you're not hurt, then I'm going to clean you up." She told me. "Is that okay?"

"Um," I said awkwardly. "Sure."

A blonde man stepped forward. He looked a bit older than the others, though he still couldn't be past twenty-five. He held out a hand. I stared at it blankly like the genius that I was. After a second, he put it back down. Which was, of course, when it finally occurred to me that I probably should have shaken it. "I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen," He said politely. "I'm just going to look you over. Just to make sure that you don't have a concussion or any broken bones. Is that okay with you?"

This time I knew that the correct thing to do would be to nod. I did, and Doc began making his evaluation, which consisted basically of touching random body parts and seeing whether or not I cried out in pain, and if I did, how loudly. This got boring after about two seconds, so I entertained myself by further inspecting the people there.

There was Renesmee, who was leaning into Bella and looking distinctly uncomfortable. On the couch a man was watching a basketball game. He was a good foot and a half shorter than any of the wolves, but he was just as muscular. His hair was a dark mass of luscious curls that most people would kill to have. Standing at the head of the couch was a tall woman with caramel colored brown waves and a heart shaped face. There was something softer, sweeter, about her demeanor than the others. In the corner stood two blondes. A boy and a girl. The girl was so heartbreakingly beautiful that she almost hurt to look at. She was the whole deal. Long blonde locks all the way down her back, and the figure of a model-but with bigger boobs. She was scowling at the ceiling. The boy was long and lanky, and in between both of his brothers in the muscle department. His blonde hair was a complete mess, but he made it sexy. He seemed somehow tenser than the others, and pained somehow. Very odd.

"All right, Cathryn." Carlisle said, looking at me intently. "Your bones aren't broken, but many of your ribs are badly bruised." He told me. "Your scratches _seem _to be healing well, and if you do have a concussion, it is very mild. But I would keep a very close eye on everything. Especially the bruises. You're going to feel tender for quite a while."

I nodded like this was all very reassuring. In reality, this guy had told me virtually nothing that I didn't already know.

"I'm going to clean you up a little now, okay?" Alice asked me, dancing forward.

"Yeah." I said, and let her lead me upstairs and into her giant bathroom, covered with every skin/hair product imaginable. Which made no sense, because it wasn't like any of them would ever _need _any of it.

"Stand still," Alice told me, suddenly businesslike.

She got to work, putting medicine in my scratches and drowning my bruises in cover up. She did the same with my face, disguising my black eye, damaged jaw, and the circles under my eyes with the expertise and competence of an artist. Not even kidding. I've always thought of make up as something to make insecure girls feel pretty, but Alice…. She made it look amazing. Like it was a _talent, _a complicated masterpiece that had to be done just right. And believe me, she did it _just right._

Within about fifteen minutes I was deemed presentable and let out of the mini beauty store. We found Renesmee waiting in the hall. "Uh, Alice, can you…?" She asked softly.

"Of course!" Alice beams at us both before going down the hall and stairs with more speed than I would have thought was possible.

For a moment, neither of us said anything.

"Hi." Renesmee said finally.

"Hi." I responded, feeling bored.

Renesmee took a deep breath. "We're vampires." She said quietly. "The Cullens are. Did you know that?"

I stared at her, to shocked to respond, or even _breathe. _

"Well, except for me." She corrected myself. "I'm half and half."

She looked at me, obviously expecting me to say something. I worked to choke out the words. "But-how-" I sputtered. "I thought werewolves and-blooodsuckers- were supposed-I mean-_enemies. _Deep loathing, and all that."

She smiled. "We've learned to get along. Now it's nearly effortless." When she smiled, it looked like she might actually have a heart under all that richness and beauty.

I bit my lip, still trying to wrap my head around it. "Why are you telling me all this?" I demanded.

Renesmee stopped smiling. "It's just that…." She took another deep breath. "I can't imagine anybody doing, you know, what it was that Hart did to you. I can't even fathom it." She shook her head, looking genuinely confused. I realized with a jolt that she was used to being loved and cherished by _everyone. _I was probably the first person to ever not like her. Of course a boyfriend like Hart would seem foreign to her. "I just don't think that any body deserves to be treated that way. And you seem like you might be a pretty nice person. Maybe." She went on, more cautious now. "I was wondering if we could like…start over?"

I stared at her pityingly. I really _was _the first person to ever have disliked her. Didn't she know that nobody ever started over? That hate always lasted a lot longer than love? Still, she seemed sincere. And I was really much too tired to deal with another fight with her. "Sure." I said listlessly. "Okay. Whatever."

The corner of her mouth twisted, like she was fighting back a smirk.

Then I heard something. A voice that drowned out everything else. That stopped whatever I'd been thinking about Renesmee in its tracks. A voice, loud and deep and strong and anxious and protective, that I had absolutely not idea I'd missed that much until the second I heard it.

"Where is she? Is she okay? I swear to God, when I get my hands on him…"


	13. Chapter 13

Embry's POV

Have you ever been to a cookout? Like a really big one, with smoke from the grill or campfire or whatever billowing everywhere and you have to go way out of your way in order to avoid it? Have you ever went swimming during one? Have you ever gone under water for so long that your lungs are bursting and you can't remember why you were down there in the first place and all you can think of, all you want, is air? And then you break the surface and take a few grateful gasps and for a second all you feel is relief, but then you taste the smoke, and you start choking and you're just like, what the crap?

That was what it reminded me of when I came to the Cullen's to find Cathryn. I heard her coming down the stairs, and I met her halfway without even thinking about it. I had missed her way to much to worry about boundaries. The second I got to her, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her as tightly as I could, just riding on a complete high that I had her with me again.

At least, I did until she stopped breathing.

Then I had to let her go. I looked at her carefully. Something was different. I didn't know what, but….I raked my eyes up and down her body, searching.

That's when I inhaled the smoke.

The first thing that I noticed was the bruises. To her credit, Alice had done a very good job of covering everything up, so I didn't actually get to see what they looked like. But every place she was wearing make-up, I knew was a place he had it her. And she had make-up _everywhere._

The second thing I noticed was her weight. I realize how shallow that sounds, I mean, I'm supposed to love this girl forever and I'm worried about how fat she is? Just hang on a minute. I will explain. See, most of her body was exactly the same as before. Thin, bony even. But on her stomach and hips sat about twenty pounds of fat that were not there before. And this wasn't the good kind, either. Not the kind that you call fluffy, or plump, or whatever. Not the kind that you get from cookouts and sleepovers and romantic dinners. This was the kind that you got from sleeping way too late and crying over a carton of ice-cream.

The last thing I noticed was probably the worst thing. Her demeanor. When I hugged her, she didn't squirm or try to get away or jokingly remind me that she had to breathe. She had been completely still. Lifeless. She was hunched over nw, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Classic body language of the insecure. And Cathryn was anything but.

"Oh My God," I whispered, shaking my head. I pulled her into me again, more gentle this time. It was so weird to me. Seeing her weak. Breakable. "What happened to you, Cat?" I murmered.

She pulled away, looking at me intently. "Don't take me home." She commanded. "I don't want my parents seeing me like this."

"Okay!" Said, just happy that she was bossing me around again. "There's another campfire thing tonight, if you want to…." Cathryn winced, obviously, it didn't bring up her best memories. "Or we could do something else." I added.

"No." She shook her head. "The tribal meeting campfire thingy sounds fine."

I grinned. _Tribal meeting Campfire thingy._

"She'll be fine, Embry." Carlise put a hand on my shoulder. I stiffened. I had nothing against the Cullen leeches at this point, but physical contact was still so….

"Come on," I told Cathryn. "I'll drive you there."

I carried her out of the house and into my car. Another thing wrong. The only time Cathryn had every let me pick her up without giving me crap about it was when she'd first found out about us. And obviously she wasn't in great shape then. Which lead me to believe that she wasn't now. Which caused me to completely freak out.

I like to think that she saw none of this though. I mean, I didn't like bang the steering wheel or cuss at my fellow drivers or tell her what an idiot she was for putting up with Hal or whatever his name was. And believe me, I wanted very badly to do all three. But I didn't, because Cathryn had had enough crap thrown at her in the past couple of months to last her the next couple of centuries, and I didn't feel like adding to it.

Chapter 28 Rehab

Cathryn's POV

Embry was pissed. He didn't say anything, but I could tell from the way he kept his hand on mine the entire ride to the beach. Not out of comfort though. It was too stiff for that. More like he needed somewhere to out it that would prevent him from destroying his car. After a few seconds, I turned on the radio and for once, he didn't protest. Which also hinted that he was seeing red. I put it on some pop song that I hadn't heard yet, which was quite a feat, let me tell you, for the radio to play a foreign song. It had a good rhythm, very cheery.

Unfortunately, not cheery enough to improve either of our moods.

About twenty minutes later, Embry cut the engine.

"But we aren't there yet." I protested.

"Uh, yeah, we aren't going to the same place." Embry told me, getting out of the car. "This one you can't drive to. We'll be there on the rock, where we go cliff diving." He circled around and opened my door. But instead of waiting patiently while I got out, he took me out of it himself, carrying me again like he had before.

This irked me. I wasn't _that _breakable. "I can walk, thanks." I told him irritably, scambling out of his grasp.

He probably could have kept me there had he wanted to, but he put me down willingly started walking down a little trail in the woods. And I mean _little._ I had to walk behind Embry because there wasn't enough room for us to go side by side. At first I was a little worried by this, as Embry's legs are about twice the length of my own and there for he leaves me on a regular basis when we're walking side by side, where he can see me. But that night he was slow enough for me to keep up.

He didn't say anything though.

And neither did I.

I mean, can you really blame us? After all that had happened? You know, finding out about not one, but two totally wacko races of mankind and then being pounded repeatedly one hand, and being judged and ignored and lied to for five straight months on the other. So It's really not that hard to believe that we didn't say a whole lot.

After about ten minutes though, it started getting kind of creepy. Which was odd for me, because I've never been the kind to get spooked. Of anything. You know how there are some people you meet who just adore roller coasters? I like creepy things. You know, horror flicks and junk. I've always liked the dark, even when I was little. Walks in the woods were usually _relaxing._ You know, kind of scary, but in a thrilling sort of way. But not this one.

I kept my head down and walked right up close to Embry, singing the lyrics to _Shake it, _by Metro Station, in my head. But it didn't help. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. Which was completely stupid, because we were in the middle of the woods. And it was really cold, even though it was almost April. And I was with Embry, who, being a werewolf and all, was way scarier than anything else that went _bump _in the night. I hurried forward so that I was closer to him. For some reason, he'd always made me feel really safe.

Except he wasn't there. My head snapped up, twisting around wildly to see where he had gone. But nothing. He'd completey vanished. I sped up, almost running now, thinking that he might have just gotten tired of waiting for me. But he was nowhere up ahead. I shivered again, and this time not from the cold. I still had it. The bad feeling. It was getting stronger. Looked in the woods, searching carefully for anyone that could be hiding there, waiting to scare me. But there was nothing but branches.

I heard the ominous crunch ahead of me that could only mean twigs snapping under feet. My head snapped up. "Hello?" I whispered, more than a little freaked at this point.

Another footstep. I staggered backwards. Another. They were coming faster now, to fast for me to run away from. I braced myself for whatever was coming, my heart pounding in my throat. The next few footsteps were much, much too close.

And then I was attacked.

"Kitteeeeee!!!" Claire squealed, throwing her arms around my waist. Her curly mane of hair was almost to my chest now. Her hair did give her a few inches advantage, was she was still so tall, for a six year old. A young six, at that. Her birthday had been in March. With a pang of guilt, I realized that I had missed it.

I staggered backward, my previous anxiety attack forgotten. "Hey, Clairedy-cat!" I said, laughing.

Claire pulled away and grabbed hold of my wrist, pulling me. "Come on! We've got a really good place this time!" She told me exitedly, pulling me harder.

Jeez. I really needed talk to the Youngs about Claire's sugar intake.

A few seconds later we broke out of the forest and came to a flat stone area where most kids went cliff diving. Everyone had arrived, and most guys were currently scrambling to get a hot-dog before their wolf-brothers ate it all. Ditto the girls but about their boyfriends, not brothers.

I felt a moment of deep disgust. I'd been right here the whole time?

Cocoa was right. I was turning into a patsy.

Claire lead me to the fray, sitting me down between Embry and Quil. "Hey Kitty?" She asked me.

"Yeah?"

"Are you gonna come see me some more?" Her brown eyes filled with hope. Good God, I was such a card. Who shunned a six year old?

"Ofcourse!" I reassured her. "Anytime your parents need me."

Claire rewarded me with a huge smile, and plunked her self down in Quil's lap, who shot me the same big grin. I smiled half heartedly back. But, understandably, I wasn't in the best mood in the world. I was still throbbing. And very aware of the dozens of eyes willing me to look at them. I squirmed uncomfortably, but cose to meet the pair of those that most deserved an answer. Embry. I looked up hesitantly, and confirmed that he was one of the gapers. That expression...I couldn't put my finger on it. Couldn't read it. It never failed to disable me. Not that I wasn't already. I sighed, depressed.

At least until I felt Embry's arm snake around my waist and pull me into his lap. For some reason. that improved my mood quite a bit. Where his skin was touching mine...it felt weird. Electric, almost. Somthing that should have put me immediatly on edge, but didn't. Instead, it calmed me. For now, at least, everything was okay. I felt so safe with him. How had I not realized it before? How safe he made me feel. More than safe, actually. Safe, protected, content, perfect. Loved.

Not like that, of course. He was way out of my leauge, I knew that. But I had been so, so horrible to him, and yet he was still acting so sweet. If he didn't care about me, at least in the sisterly way, then why would he put up with that?

Sisterly. Ugh. Suddenly, that didn't seem so appealing anymore. Sure, he was out of my leaugue. Stubborn, wrong, judgmental, all around bad girls don't get sweet, patient, mysterious guys like Embry. They just didn't. BUt then, when did I ever follow the rules? And his arms felt so right around me.

Just as I thought this, Embry sighed, leaning into me and, putting his chin on the top of my head, he pulled me closer. I shivered, but not from the cold. Embry was too warm for that. From happiness. I'm sorry, but I was being held by a hot and perfect ladie's man. How coud I not be happy?

Embry drove me home, again in silence. Only, unlike the last time, this one wasn't tense. It was just that neither of us felt like talking. Atleast, not until we got to my house.

Embry pulled into my driveway. "Hey," He said softly, "Here." He took my hand-had my skin always tingled like that wherever he touched it?- and slipped something into it. I opened my palm. It was a necklace. A tiny wooden figurine connected to a long leather strip. It was so beautiful. But not, like, in a girly way. In a cool, mysterious way. It was perfect for me. "Happy early irthday, Cat." Embry said. I started, remembering. My birthday...oh, yeah. Only a few days away.

I tied the cord around my neck. "Thanks," I said, grinning.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 29 Revenge Face down-Red jumpsuit Apparatus

Embry's POV

I whatched as Cathryn slowly walked up the front step and into her house. Then I counted to five before leaving, going in the oposite direction of my house. I didn't want Cat to wonder. If she did, she'd figure it out. And I would be a dead man.

It was all too easy to find Hart's scent and follow it to his house. It was all over the place. When I got there, I walked up the steps and knocked, waiting impatiently and trying to still the anger spasms that rocked my body, threatening to overpower it. This was somthing I had to deal with human.

The door opened, and I was releived to find that it was Hart wo answered, not one of his parents. I listened as his heart stuttered, then took off at a galloping. He was afraid.

I loved being big and scary.

Three broken ribs, a black eye, a crushed arm, a broken jaw, and three missing teeth later, I walked back to my car, my mood having improved marginally.

Chapter 30 Report Card

Cathryn's POV

Before I start this chapter, I would just like to say to any one reading that I am not an unreasoably daughter. I am all for punishment, if one deserves it. How else would parents be able to disepline their kid? And trust me, I needed disiplining. Seriously, though, what ever happened to the usual punishments? Taking my ipod away, my cell phone, not letting m talk to my friends, no TV, no laptop? Because those were the punishments that could normally be expected. But not this time. No, this time, my mother had decided to branch out a little. "Art lessons," She repeated, flipping through my French notebook and looking pleased with herself.

Art lessons. God, take me now.

My french grade, while it had improved since Collin had started tutoring me, was still only a C. And my other grades had been As and Bs. My mother was used to good grades, and when she saw the my F average for the year on the last day of school, she had flipped out somewhat. Then, she had gotten a hold of my notebook, looked through it to find my year long doodling, and had had an insperation. Apparantly, giving e art lessons would provide me with a 'creative outlet' and keep me from having to show it in other, less apropriate ways. Never mind that I had listened to my ipod and played my DS in there way more than I had ever drawn. Never mind that I _was _getting better. Nope, none of that mattered. I needed art lessons.

"Mom," I sadi desperately. "Please."

"Please what?" My mom looked suprised. "You're getting off really easy here, Cathryn. Its not even a punishment, really. And beseides." She said, looking back down at my notbook. "You need more extra curriculars."

"I have plently of extra curriculars." I grumbled.

"You dance." My mom said flatly. "You dance, and thats about it."

"No," I argued. "I do ballet, point, and hip-hop. Three hours, three classes a week, three extra curriculars."

"And now you will have four." Sher said desisively. "I don't understand why you are so against this. Mr. Dobson seemed like a very nice man. He teaches teens on Monday afternoons at his home. You will have a great time with it this summer."

She is such a liar.

Chapter 31 Hiding First Time Lifehouse

Embry's POV

I am ashamed to say that I was the one who lost our first game of truth. Not only that, but I had the perfect opportunity to tell Cathryn about imprinting, and I chickened out. Again. We were at her house, stretched out across her bed in opposite directions so that her head was resting in the crook between my neck and my shoulder, and mine in hers. We were finally getting the chance to talk about what had happened. It was the last week of school, and things had been so busy lately that it was almost like the incident with Hart had never happened. Even like she still didn't know that I was a werewolf. But now we were both getting cleared up on things.

"Okay." Cathryn said decisively. "Truth. I'm starting."

"No way," I protested, "Its my turn. You asked me that question about my dad, remember? When Emily had Nate and you freaked out when-"

"I know what you're talking about." She interrupted. "But you never answered that question."

"I'll answer it now."

"I don't want you to answer it now. I have a new question." She told me.

Okay, I guess it wasn't really Truth. Since Truth is more like answering a bunch of random but intrusive questions. And Cathryn and I both had things that we desperately wanted to know that were all related. So it was more like having two different conversations at once.

I sighed. " Fine. What is it?"

"We-ell," Cathryn hedged a little shyly. "That day that Quil found me, at the Cullens?"

"Yeah?"

"Before you got there, Renesmee told me that she and the rest of them were _vampires-"_

"She did?" I lifted my head and looked down at her, searching her face for any fear or anger. I didn't want a repeat of the past six months. "I had no idea she did that, I am _so sorry_, I really didn't mean for you to find out that way-"

"And the way I found out about werewolves went exactly as planned?" Cathryn asked me skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

Well. She had me there.

"Anyway," Cathryn continued, "You guys and the Cullens seemed so tight. I thought that vampires and werewolves were, like, sworn enemies and stuff. Plus, she said that she was only half vamp. How did _that _happen?"

"The Cullens, though, aren't like normal vampires." I told her, choosing to ignore the fact that that was two questions, not one. "They're-they call themselves _vegetarians. _They only drink the blood of animals."

"And that's any better?" Cat asked indignantly, sitting up and wrapping her arms protectively around her dog, Papaya, who was on the bed with us.

"It was either that or humans, Cat." I told her. Not that I thought that would be of any consolation to her. Cathryn, I had discovered, was quite the animal lover. She was nicer to my dog, Moonpie, than she was to me.

"They should have starved themselves." Cathryn grumbled, leaning back down.

"Its not possible." I told her.

Cathryn seemed to have no response for that.

"The Cullens try to live among humans. You know, go to school, have jobs, live places with some degree of permanence. Of course, they don't age, and that's something of a problem. They have to move every couple of years. By the end of the summer, they'll probably have gone someplace else." But nowhere too far. Close enough so that Jacob could see Nessie, and Nessie could see Jacob. The Cullens would not be able to go anywhere too far until Nessie could live alone in the Cullen's house that they were living in now.

"Like, fifty years ago or something, they came here. They told the pack that was around at the time that they weren't dangerous. So they drew up a treaty."

"Treaty?" Cathryn asked.

"Yeah. Like, a set of guidelines for the Cullens to follow. They couldn't go to the beaches, they couldn't bite a human."

"But Renesmee goes to the beaches." Cathryn pointed out.

"Yeah. I'll get to the Nessie bit later." I told her.

"Ugh. Fine," Cathryn sighed. So patient.

I took a deep breath, and continued. "So the Cullens stayed here for, like, five years or something, and then they left. But then, seven years ago, they came back. And when they came back-"

"You guys started shifting." Cathryn said, remembering this part from when I told her the legends.

"Right. Us Quiluetes started growing fur, and we put the treaty back into motion, and everything seemed like it was going to be fine. But after two years, something happened."

"Which was?" Cat prompted.

"You know Edward?" I asked her. "The one with the reddish hair?"

"Renesmee's father."

"Yep. Only, he hadn't met Bella yet. He was the only one of the Cullens that was still alone. And when Chief Swan's seventeen year old daughter showed up, he fell for her. Like, hard. He told her everything. About vampires, and what he was, all of it. They were crazy for each other.

"But then…I don't really know about this part. I guess he chickened out. You know, got to thinking that he was too dangerous for Bella. He didn't want to hurt her. So he told her that he didn't want her anymore, and he and the rest of the Cullens left.

"But by that time, he and Bella had begun to attract some attention. Humans and vampires together…its never happened before. One coven in particular was very…curious. On of the leeches had her heart set on killing Bella. She hung around, trying to get to her. So the Quileutes kept shifting.

"Bella got really close to Jacob. He. like, helped her. And the pain wasn't so bad when he was around." I gritted my teeth at this part. I knew that Bella hadn't meant to mess Jake up like she had, and that everything had turned out all right in the end, but I still remembered what the inside of Jacob's head had been like when she left him. "And Jake fell for her. Not like Edward had…but he still needed her.

"One day Bella got bored or something, and she went cliff diving. Alice saw her, and thought that she was trying to kill herself. Somehow that got back to Edward, and he freaked out. He couldn't live without her. So he went to the Volturi."

"The Volturi?" Cathryn wrinkled her forehead.

"Yeah. They are like royalty, only with vampires. They make sure that everybody keeps the secret. Edward went to Italy, to find them and ask them to kill him. But Alice went back here, to make sure that she had been right. And when she found Bella, not only safe and sound but best friends with some one who was every bit as dangerous as Edward had been…." I trailed off, not entirely sure how to put this.

"So she and Bella got Edward?" Cathryn guessed.

"Yeah. And Edward came back. He was too weak to stay away from her any longer. And everything was great. For them. But Jacob was still in love with her, and Bella missed him. Jake and Edward faught over Bella for awhile, until Edward finally won and they got married. He was going to bite her. So that she could become one of them. Be with him forever."

"That seems awfully selfish for somebody who claims to love someone so much." Cathryn sniffed.

I fully agreed, but I didn't say anything. "It was Bella, really. She had begged. Like, relentlessly. But then something else went wrong. Apparently, vampires can get human girls pregnant."

"Oh my god." Cathryn looked revolted.

"Once Bella found out, she went ballistic. She refused to let Edward get it out of her. She wanted to have it. Even though it was so much stronger than her. It was killing her. When Jacob found out, he freaked, too. Sam wanted to kill her. Kill _them. _But Jake couldn't do it. He split off, away from the rest of the pack, and went over to the Cullens. We couldn't do anything while he was protecting them. We weren't going to kill him. Especially when the Clearwaters joined him.

"When Bella had the baby, Edward bit her. It was the only way to save her. Jacob was around. He and Nessie…" I chose my next words carefully. I didn't want her to know about imprinting just yet, but how else could I describe what had happened? "They had… a special connection. Bella didn't matter to him anymore. He didn't have to hurt over her. He could be happy for her, and make friends with Edward. Somehow…Nessie fixed him." It was a very stupid way to describe it, but I didn't know what else to say.

Cathryn was quiet for second, soaking it all in. "How odd." She finally said.

I snorted. The understatement of the year.

"So…like…Wow." Cathryn shook her head. "That's just unreal."

"Kind of like the fact that werewolves and vampires exist in the first place?" I asked her.

"Its just that…I had no idea." Cathryn looked shell-shocked.

"There are a lot of things that you don't know about." I told her.

"True." She acknowledged. "Okay. Its your turn. Ask me."

"Why did you start dating Hart?" The words were on the tip of my tongue. I didn't even have to think about it.

"What else was I supposed to do? I hated you guys." I winced. "And every body at the middle school thought I was a freak-"

"Thought?" I asked.

"Okay, fine. It was a correct assumption. But the point is, I didn't have anybody. And then he showed up. Its not like he was my saving grace or anything. It wasn't like that. I never cared about him all that much. But it was better than being a friendless loser."

Getting beat up everyday was better than being a friendless loser? I disagreed. And I knew my next question.

"My turn again. Tell me something else that I didn't know." Cathryn commanded.

But there was only one thing that she really didn't know about. The one thing that would change her life-and mine-forever. And I wasn't ready to tell her. And she wasn't ready to know. I took a deep breath. "Pass," I said warily, afraid of the way she would react.

She didn't disappoint. _"What?" _She asked me, turning her head so that she was speaking directly in my ear.

"Pass." I repeated.

"No! You can't pass! You can't do that to me!"

"I just did." I worked to keep the grin off of my face. Dramatic much?

"I hate you, Embry Call." She said sourly.

"Why? You just won."

"Not yet. You still have to ask me something."

"Okay. So, you started dating Hart because you were lonely. Why didn't you quit when he hit you?" I hoped she didn't think so little of my intellect as to say that that was the first time he'd hit her. I'd seen her bruises. Some of them were older.

She didn't. "I tried. But I was a little…mean. When I broke up with him, I pissed him off."

"So? Isn't that a good thing?" I asked irritably. I didn't like hearing this.

She grinned. "Yeah. But then he pushed me down and basically kicked me until I took it all back."

I shut my eyes and counted to ten, slowly. But it didn't help. When I opened my eyes, I still saw red. I still felt the uncontrollable spasms rocking my body. I still felt angrier than I ever had in my life. I gripped the bed frame, trying to keep myself under control. It did accomplish much though, just caused the bed to shake nearly as much as I was.

"Hey," Cathryn sat up and look at me, concerned. "Are you okay?"

No. No, I was not. I'd been way too nice when I'd beat up Hart. I should have killed him. Slowly. Preferably using that mustard gas from world war one or whatever. "I gotta get outa here," I spat, getting up and walking jerkily to her balcony. I wouldn't make it downstairs.

"Wait," Cathryn held up a finger, oblivious to the fact that I was working not to destroy her room. Possibly her entire house. "Monday. Can you take me to art class? I know that school will be out, and all, but my mom-"

"Sure I said quickly. "Bye." I put my hand on the concrete rail and swung my self over.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 32 Spotted

Cathryn's POV

"Pick me up at two." I told Embry quickly as I got out of the truck. He nodded and drove off. I turned to face my punishment.

I would just like to say to anyone reading this that I fully believe in punishment when doing something wrong, and all that. I got a D for French for the school year, even with Collin's help. So I should be punished for that. It wasn't like I was doing my absolute best, or anything. I spent most of it on my DS or listening to my ipod. Or, when we were supposed to be taking notes, doodling in my notebook. Which now I very deeply regretted. But whatever happened to being _grounded_? No ipod, or no computer, or no TV, or no leaving my house. No seeing my friends. Extra chores. You know. _Normal _punishments. But _art classes_? A class a week, every week? Does that not seem just a bit harsh? And now I would be wasting my first official day of summer doing something that was offered as an elective in school.

The building in which I would be taking the classes confirmed my belief that this was going to be torture. Mr. GoodHart was supposed to teach from his house. And he did. It was one level, and made of brick. The really crumbly, brown kind, that looked like it would fall over at the next breeze. The yard was in desperate need of attention, overgrown crabgrass in some areas and bare patches of earth in others. The land had once been part of the forest, but somebody had cut the trees down to make room for the house and yard, leaving stumps everywhere.

I gulped, gathering my bearings. I had to remember that this wasn't Mr. Dobson's fault. My mom had been the one to send me here; it was her I should be angry with. I took a deep breath and walked down the little pathway and up the steps, knocking on the door.

Usually, when one knocks on a door, the thing that the recipient does is open said door. Not this time. "Come one in," A gravelly voice called.

I went in. The door creaked loudly as it opened, grating on my nerves. Once inside, I was hit with two things instantaneously. The first was the smell. Paint. And turpentine. I coughed inconspicuously. I was more of a nature, pine type of girl. Paint? Not my favorite scent. The second was more physical.

"Oof," I staggered back as a very strong force came careening into my thighs. It was only by clinging to the doorframe that I didn't fall over. I looked down. There, drooling all over my flip-flops and nose buried in my crotch, stood the saddest excuse for a canine I had ever seen.

Seriously. You know that thing I mentioned before, about trying not to hate on my teacher? Yeah, well, this sent that sentiment out the window. He was huge. A mutt. Almost definitely had some sheepdog in him. And Great Dane. He was matted all over, his fur gray in some areas and brown in others. Or maybe the brown was just dirt. Either way, I couldn't run my fingers through it. It was much too long. And tangled. And it had this sort of weird texture to it. And he smelled. A lot. Suddenly, I found myself wishing for the paint-and-turpentine smell I had shuddered at only seconds before.

"Mutt!" The gravelly voice again. A pair of very large, wrinkled, and calloused hands grabbed handfuls of the dogs fur and dragged him back. He was quickly distracted, turning around and jumping on his hind legs to lick the face of the man that stood before me.

He was about five ten, of stocky, burly build, and looked to be in his late forties. His hair was gray and sort of poofy, sticking out in all directions. He pushed the dog away firmly, revealing a pair of glasses even more ridiculous than the pair that Bob stubbornly refused to stop wearing, despite my best efforts. You know the kind. Like, really big, thick, black frame, eighties type? That you always see the geeks wearing in the movies. Or hippies.

He held out a hand. "Mr. Dobson," He said in a very no-nonsense voice. "And that idiot over there is Mutt." He nodded towards the dog. "Come on.

He turned and walked down the tiny hallway. I hastened to follow.

We found ourselves in a big, white room. It had little streaks of paint and pencil markings, and smelled even more strongly of paint then the rest of the house. There were posters and windows everywhere. The posters were all of completely random things,as far as I could tell. Rock bands. Abstract art. What I assumed was work his students had done. Animals. Those posters you see in the cafeterias all the time, that said 'got milk?' In ever electrical socket was, oddly enough, a hair dryer. In the back there was a he black shelf, with clay workings and unused canvasses mixed in with used canvases and big plastic bags filled with wet clay, and tool boxes filled with scissors and glue and paintbrushes and paints and glazes about a million little mental figurines that I could not identify.

Thirteen teenagers stood around three long, plastic tables. There were no chairs. "Go stand somewhere," Mr. Dobson commanded, "And we'll get strarted." I went over to stand next to a small, waifish blonde girl.

"All right." Mr. Dobson said. "Today, we're gonna be painting this." He stepped aside to reveal a large picture propped up against the wall. He launched into a long, detailed explanation of how wewere do do this,certain tactics that we could use. I, ofcourse, tuned him out. It was not a very good picture, a lot of trees got in the way of the subject, and it was raining, some of the drops having landed on the lens. But you could still see the wolf. Or at least, what Mr. Dobson had probably thought was a wolf.

I knew better.

My hand went to my chest, where the wooden wolf hung around my neck. I wore it every day now. As inconspicuously as possible, I put it under my shirt where nobody would see. It wasn't Sam. I knew that for sure. Or Leah. Sam had been black, Leah gray. This one was brown. A deep, chocolaty color. It sort of reminded me of Embry's eyes. Plus, this wolf was not shaped right. Leah had been smaller, gangly looking. Lean, you know. Sam had been too, but much bigger. And stronger looking. This one was about the height that Leah had been, but he was wide. Stocky, muscular. His eyes were almost impossible to make out, but I could see that they were looking directly at the camera. Like he had known the picture was being taken. They were too intelligent for an animal's.

"Gets started , guys." Mr. Dobson said.

Apparantly, being taught by Mr. Dobson meant spending half of the class listening to him talk and the other half trying to mirror what he had done without any help whatsoever. And I hadn't listened. So I pretty much did what I felt like doing, using whatever colors I thought were pretty. Leaving certain things out and adding in others. After a time, I found it kind of relaxing. Not really looking at the big picture, just the squiggles, dots, and lines that made it up. The sharp jagged cuts that made up the fur instead of the fur itself. The precise shade of green instead of the tree. And the way my brush moved in time to the oldies music that Mr. Dobson had put on…kind of melodic.

Like dancing. Almost.

Chapter 33 Lesson

Embry's POV

"Hey," I tried unsuccessfully to keep the smile off my face as Cathryn got in the truck. "Have fun?"

Cathryn glared at me. "Just shut up and take me home," She snapped.

This time I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips. "I think you _did _have fun." I told her. "You just won't admit it. And we aren't going home. We are going to my house." I backed out of the driveway and started down the street, squinting to see through the rain.

Cathryn sighed. Apparantly, she wasn't in the mood for a fight. Too bad, as what I had in store for her was exactly that. "Why?" She demanded.

"I am going to teach you how to throw a punch." I turned to watch her reaction. She sat up straighter, and looked at me straight in the eyes. My heart skipped a little as I was momentarily distracted by the beauty of her own orbs.

"No," She said loudly. "You are not."

"Yep," I replied, keeping the same cheerful tone.

"Why would you do that?" Her voice grew higher in anger. "I have like, no arm strength. It doesn't matter what the strategy is, it still wouldn't-"

"But this will help you with your arm strength, too." I told her. "And we really don't want another Hart incident, now do we?"

That was, of course, my whole reason for this. I didn't want to see her that way again. Ever. And guys like that weren't going to let her just dump them. They'd do what Hart did. Cat had to learn to defend herself, though I desperately wished that she didn't. It wasn't like other girl had to be taught this. _They _knew how to judge men. _They _knew when they had gone too far. And Cat knew neither.

"There won't be another Hart incident." Cat muttered, turning away from me and glowering at the window as she turned on the radio. Her signal that she was done talking to me.

I sighed sadly, turning my eyes back to the road.

When we got to my house, however-well, mine and Quil's and Jake's-she proved to have plenty to say.

"This is so stupid." Cathryn told me as we opened the front door. It was still raining, and I wasn't going let her get sick out there.

"You know, I don't get why you're so against this." I said, leading her to my room. "You should be jumping up and down for this."

"Why?" Cathryn wrinkled her brow, looking genuinely confused by this.

"Because," I explained. "You are always so keen on pissing people off and stuff. This has been proven to do that. Plus, eventually you are going to go too far, and somebody is going to take a whack at you that you won't be able to return."

"Already happened." Cathryn said. " Our reason for doing this, remember?"

Yes, I did remember. Much, much, much too clearly.

'Okay," I said, spreading my arms wide. "Hit me."

"No." Cathryn snapped.

I rolled my eyes. "What happened to 'I have zero arm strength'? You wouldn't be able to hurt me even if I was still human. And I won't even feel it now that I'm superhuman and all that."

But instead of punching me, Cat opened her mouth. "Are there any brown wolves in the packs?" She asked me.

Anybody who had known Cat for a shorter amount of time than I had would have been confused by such a random question, But I was used to it. "Sure," I shrugged. "Jared. Jacob, Quil. Why?"

"My art teacher took a picture of a big brown wolf." Cat told me.

The way she looked at me clearly stated that she was well aware of the seriousness of this. I felt a moment of pride. I hadn't told her about what it was like in the beginning, when everybody was afraid of the wolves. Searching for them, on the lookout all the time. She knew the consequences automatically.

"he was only a little bit bigger than Leah," She continued. "But bigger, somehow. Burlier. And he was this really deep shade of like anything I'd ever seen on a wolf before."

I was already halfway down the hall. When I got to the living room, I saw Quil, lounging on the couch and watching a baseball game while stuffing his face with a family-sized bag of potato chips. I whacked him on the head.

"Dude!" Quil protested, sitting up.

"Quil. You are in trouble. Some one saw you." I informed him.

"What, as a wolf?" Quil looked confused. "Who?"

"My psychotic art teacher." Cathryn appeared at my side. "Don't worry though. He's not…all there, I don't think. You don't have anything to worry about."

Quil bit his lip, thinking. "Oh…" He said slowly. "You mean that guy with the glasses who smelled like a sharpie?"

Cat grinned. "Yes. That would be him."

Quil rolled his eyes. "He won't say a word, the idiot. Trust me."

I looked at Cathryn. She nodded in agreement. I turned back to Quil. "Yo realize that if Sam finds out about this you are a dead man."

"But Sam isn't my alpha anymore, now, is he? That Jacob, and he doesn't care. Now let me watch the game." He turned back to the television screen.

Cathryn and I looked at each other. "Am I supposed to hit you now?" Cathryn asked me.

"Yep.

So she let one fly. Which I caught in midair. "Uh, no." I told her. "You gotta keep your thumb _outside _your fist.

We spent about the next ten minutes with Cathryn hitting me, and I feeling absolutely nothing. Quil critiqued whenever he could drag his gaze away from the television screen. After that though, we got bored. I wrestled the remote away from Quil and changed it to the Simpson's, something Cathryn would like too. We made fun of each other, just hanging out for the rest of the afternoon. I was suprised by how much I liked it. I could see us doing this years from now, laying around on a rainy day with nothing to do. And, you know, maybe with Quil or Jake or Keilly or whichever of our idiot friends that decided to drop by.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 32 Spotted

Cathryn's POV

"Pick me up at two." I told Embry quickly as I got out of the truck. He nodded and drove off. I turned to face my punishment.

I would just like to say to anyone reading this that I fully believe in punishment when doing something wrong, and all that. I got a D for French for the school year, even with Collin's help. So I should be punished for that. It wasn't like I was doing my absolute best, or anything. I spent most of it on my DS or listening to my ipod. Or, when we were supposed to be taking notes, doodling in my notebook. Which now I very deeply regretted. But whatever happened to being _grounded_? No ipod, or no computer, or no TV, or no leaving my house. No seeing my friends. Extra chores. You know. _Normal _punishments. But _art classes_? A class a week, every week? Does that not seem just a bit harsh? And now I would be wasting my first official day of summer doing something that was offered as an elective in school.

The building in which I would be taking the classes confirmed my belief that this was going to be torture. Mr. GoodHart was supposed to teach from his house. And he did. It was one level, and made of brick. The really crumbly, brown kind, that looked like it would fall over at the next breeze. The yard was in desperate need of attention, overgrown crabgrass in some areas and bare patches of earth in others. The land had once been part of the forest, but somebody had cut the trees down to make room for the house and yard, leaving stumps everywhere.

I gulped, gathering my bearings. I had to remember that this wasn't Mr. Dobson's fault. My mom had been the one to send me here; it was her I should be angry with. I took a deep breath and walked down the little pathway and up the steps, knocking on the door.

Usually, when one knocks on a door, the thing that the recipient does is open said door. Not this time. "Come one in," A gravelly voice called.

I went in. The door creaked loudly as it opened, grating on my nerves. Once inside, I was hit with two things instantaneously. The first was the smell. Paint. And turpentine. I coughed inconspicuously. I was more of a nature, pine type of girl. Paint? Not my favorite scent. The second was more physical.

"Oof," I staggered back as a very strong force came careening into my thighs. It was only by clinging to the doorframe that I didn't fall over. I looked down. There, drooling all over my flip-flops and nose buried in my crotch, stood the saddest excuse for a canine I had ever seen.

Seriously. You know that thing I mentioned before, about trying not to hate on my teacher? Yeah, well, this sent that sentiment out the window. He was huge. A mutt. Almost definitely had some sheepdog in him. And Great Dane. He was matted all over, his fur gray in some areas and brown in others. Or maybe the brown was just dirt. Either way, I couldn't run my fingers through it. It was much too long. And tangled. And it had this sort of weird texture to it. And he smelled. A lot. Suddenly, I found myself wishing for the paint-and-turpentine smell I had shuddered at only seconds before.

"Mutt!" The gravelly voice again. A pair of very large, wrinkled, and calloused hands grabbed handfuls of the dogs fur and dragged him back. He was quickly distracted, turning around and jumping on his hind legs to lick the face of the man that stood before me.

He was about five ten, of stocky, burly build, and looked to be in his late forties. His hair was gray and sort of poofy, sticking out in all directions. He pushed the dog away firmly, revealing a pair of glasses even more ridiculous than the pair that Bob stubbornly refused to stop wearing, despite my best efforts. You know the kind. Like, really big, thick, black frame, eighties type? That you always see the geeks wearing in the movies. Or hippies.

He held out a hand. "Mr. Dobson," He said in a very no-nonsense voice. "And that idiot over there is Mutt." He nodded towards the dog. "Come on.

He turned and walked down the tiny hallway. I hastened to follow.

We found ourselves in a big, white room. It had little streaks of paint and pencil markings, and smelled even more strongly of paint then the rest of the house. There were posters and windows everywhere. The posters were all of completely random things,as far as I could tell. Rock bands. Abstract art. What I assumed was work his students had done. Animals. Those posters you see in the cafeterias all the time, that said 'got milk?' In ever electrical socket was, oddly enough, a hair dryer. In the back there was a he black shelf, with clay workings and unused canvasses mixed in with used canvases and big plastic bags filled with wet clay, and tool boxes filled with scissors and glue and paintbrushes and paints and glazes about a million little mental figurines that I could not identify.

Thirteen teenagers stood around three long, plastic tables. There were no chairs. "Go stand somewhere," Mr. Dobson commanded, "And we'll get strarted." I went over to stand next to a small, waifish blonde girl.

"All right." Mr. Dobson said. "Today, we're gonna be painting this." He stepped aside to reveal a large picture propped up against the wall. He launched into a long, detailed explanation of how wewere do do this,certain tactics that we could use. I, ofcourse, tuned him out. It was not a very good picture, a lot of trees got in the way of the subject, and it was raining, some of the drops having landed on the lens. But you could still see the wolf. Or at least, what Mr. Dobson had probably thought was a wolf.

I knew better.

My hand went to my chest, where the wooden wolf hung around my neck. I wore it every day now. As inconspicuously as possible, I put it under my shirt where nobody would see. It wasn't Sam. I knew that for sure. Or Leah. Sam had been black, Leah gray. This one was brown. A deep, chocolaty color. It sort of reminded me of Embry's eyes. Plus, this wolf was not shaped right. Leah had been smaller, gangly looking. Lean, you know. Sam had been too, but much bigger. And stronger looking. This one was about the height that Leah had been, but he was wide. Stocky, muscular. His eyes were almost impossible to make out, but I could see that they were looking directly at the camera. Like he had known the picture was being taken. They were too intelligent for an animal's.

"Gets started , guys." Mr. Dobson said.

Apparantly, being taught by Mr. Dobson meant spending half of the class listening to him talk and the other half trying to mirror what he had done without any help whatsoever. And I hadn't listened. So I pretty much did what I felt like doing, using whatever colors I thought were pretty. Leaving certain things out and adding in others. After a time, I found it kind of relaxing. Not really looking at the big picture, just the squiggles, dots, and lines that made it up. The sharp jagged cuts that made up the fur instead of the fur itself. The precise shade of green instead of the tree. And the way my brush moved in time to the oldies music that Mr. Dobson had put on…kind of melodic.

Like dancing. Almost.

Chapter 33 Lesson

Embry's POV

"Hey," I tried unsuccessfully to keep the smile off my face as Cathryn got in the truck. "Have fun?"

Cathryn glared at me. "Just shut up and take me home," She snapped.

This time I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips. "I think you _did _have fun." I told her. "You just won't admit it. And we aren't going home. We are going to my house." I backed out of the driveway and started down the street, squinting to see through the rain.

Cathryn sighed. Apparantly, she wasn't in the mood for a fight. Too bad, as what I had in store for her was exactly that. "Why?" She demanded.

"I am going to teach you how to throw a punch." I turned to watch her reaction. She sat up straighter, and looked at me straight in the eyes. My heart skipped a little as I was momentarily distracted by the beauty of her own orbs.

"No," She said loudly. "You are not."

"Yep," I replied, keeping the same cheerful tone.

"Why would you do that?" Her voice grew higher in anger. "I have like, no arm strength. It doesn't matter what the strategy is, it still wouldn't-"

"But this will help you with your arm strength, too." I told her. "And we really don't want another Hart incident, now do we?"

That was, of course, my whole reason for this. I didn't want to see her that way again. Ever. And guys like that weren't going to let her just dump them. They'd do what Hart did. Cat had to learn to defend herself, though I desperately wished that she didn't. It wasn't like other girl had to be taught this. _They _knew how to judge men. _They _knew when they had gone too far. And Cat knew neither.

"There won't be another Hart incident." Cat muttered, turning away from me and glowering at the window as she turned on the radio. Her signal that she was done talking to me.

I sighed sadly, turning my eyes back to the road.

When we got to my house, however-well, mine and Quil's and Jake's-she proved to have plenty to say.

"This is so stupid." Cathryn told me as we opened the front door. It was still raining, and I wasn't going let her get sick out there.

"You know, I don't get why you're so against this." I said, leading her to my room. "You should be jumping up and down for this."

"Why?" Cathryn wrinkled her brow, looking genuinely confused by this.

"Because," I explained. "You are always so keen on pissing people off and stuff. This has been proven to do that. Plus, eventually you are going to go too far, and somebody is going to take a whack at you that you won't be able to return."

"Already happened." Cathryn said. " Our reason for doing this, remember?"

Yes, I did remember. Much, much, much too clearly.

'Okay," I said, spreading my arms wide. "Hit me."

"No." Cathryn snapped.

I rolled my eyes. "What happened to 'I have zero arm strength'? You wouldn't be able to hurt me even if I was still human. And I won't even feel it now that I'm superhuman and all that."

But instead of punching me, Cat opened her mouth. "Are there any brown wolves in the packs?" She asked me.

Anybody who had known Cat for a shorter amount of time than I had would have been confused by such a random question, But I was used to it. "Sure," I shrugged. "Jared. Jacob, Quil. Why?"

"My art teacher took a picture of a big brown wolf." Cat told me.

The way she looked at me clearly stated that she was well aware of the seriousness of this. I felt a moment of pride. I hadn't told her about what it was like in the beginning, when everybody was afraid of the wolves. Searching for them, on the lookout all the time. She knew the consequences automatically.

"he was only a little bit bigger than Leah," She continued. "But bigger, somehow. Burlier. And he was this really deep shade of like anything I'd ever seen on a wolf before."

I was already halfway down the hall. When I got to the living room, I saw Quil, lounging on the couch and watching a baseball game while stuffing his face with a family-sized bag of potato chips. I whacked him on the head.

"Dude!" Quil protested, sitting up.

"Quil. You are in trouble. Some one saw you." I informed him.

"What, as a wolf?" Quil looked confused. "Who?"

"My psychotic art teacher." Cathryn appeared at my side. "Don't worry though. He's not…all there, I don't think. You don't have anything to worry about."

Quil bit his lip, thinking. "Oh…" He said slowly. "You mean that guy with the glasses who smelled like a sharpie?"

Cat grinned. "Yes. That would be him."

Quil rolled his eyes. "He won't say a word, the idiot. Trust me."

I looked at Cathryn. She nodded in agreement. I turned back to Quil. "Yo realize that if Sam finds out about this you are a dead man."

"But Sam isn't my alpha anymore, now, is he? That Jacob, and he doesn't care. Now let me watch the game." He turned back to the television screen.

Cathryn and I looked at each other. "Am I supposed to hit you now?" Cathryn asked me.

"Yep.

So she let one fly. Which I caught in midair. "Uh, no." I told her. "You gotta keep your thumb _outside _your fist.

We spent about the next ten minutes with Cathryn hitting me, and I feeling absolutely nothing. Quil critiqued whenever he could drag his gaze away from the television screen. After that though, we got bored. I wrestled the remote away from Quil and changed it to the Simpson's, something Cathryn would like too. We made fun of each other, just hanging out for the rest of the afternoon. I was suprised by how much I liked it. I could see us doing this years from now, laying around on a rainy day with nothing to do. And, you know, maybe with Quil or Jake or Keilly or whichever of our idiot friends that decided to drop by.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 34 Alarm

Cathryn's POV

There is a long, long list of things you can go through with somebody you hate and come out of it still hating them just as much, if not more, as you had to begin with. However, recovering from assault is apparently not one of them. Ever since Renesmee and I had had that little conversation at her house, we had begun to be friends. She had started hanging out at Dowling's when Jacob was teaching me to drive. She'd sit in the backseat, surprisingly fun to be around. She teased me right along with Jacob whenever I messed up. And I came to realize that she was, actually, a decent person.

Not that I hadn't been right about most of my assumptions about her. She _was _spoiled. Nobody that I knew of had ever disliked her at all. She was also competitive and sensitive almost as impatient as me. But she was also protective and sweet and by far the smartest person I had ever met. We came to be friends.

It was mid-June, and Keilly and Leslie and I were all going over to the Cullen's for a sleepover at Nessie's. It was my impression that this wasn't something that she had ever done before, and that, put together with her billions of dollars, meant that it was going to have the works. Not that I wouldn't have come were it not for that, but it was definitely a perk.

Keilly-having just gotten her license and therefore mental to drive as much as possible-picked up Leslie and I and took us over there. When we arrived, I knew right away that something was up. For one thing, the house was completely empty except for Rosalie and Alice, both standing at the center of the living room with determined expressions on their faces, and Renesmee, hovering beside then and blushing a deep scarlet.

"Hey." I said, a little wary. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry," Nessie said immediately. "I tried to stop them, I swear."

Alice sent her a scornful look. "You," She proclaimed, "Are just like your mother."

Leslie and Leilly and I exchanged bemused glances. "What-" Keilly started, before being interrupted by Rosalie.

"Alice did not have much of a human life." She said. "She was unstoppable when she saw the sleepover."

I didn't bother asking what she meant by 'saw'. Renesmee had told me-well, showed, really, with that creepy talent of hers-about all of her family's little gifts.

"The kitchen is stocked with chocolate." Alice told us, beaming. "As it's, you know, the only human food that Nessie actually enjoys. And we ARE going shopping, I don't care what you do to stop us." She sent both Renesmee and I warning looks as she said this, knowing that we would be the more reluctant participants in that. "Preferably in LA-"

"Alice!" Renesmee looked shocked, and a little angry. "_Seattle, _Alice. Some of us need sleep."

"Fine," Alice grumbled. "Shopping in Seattle, then. But they don't have anywhere near the best clothes. Anyway," She continues, brightening. "This place is completely stocked with DVD's, Rosalie and I have picked out the ones that we will be watching. A perfect mix of Romance," She gave Keilly a pointed look. "And horror." Here, she looked at me again.

"Great!" Keilly smiled.

"Guys," I said, horrified, as I examined myself in the mirror. "You aren't serious."

I had to hand it to Alice. She had managed to get me into the mall. And into Forever 21. And into the dressing rooms. All without picking me up and carrying me there using her inhuman strength and speed. But this. This was where I drew the line. I was in a skirt, okay? A _skirt. _And not the kind that you have to have a few of, for, you know, church and funerals and stuff, but the kind that people actually wear for fun. It was a denim skirt frayed edges that was at least three inches higher than dress code.

And Rosalie, Alice, Renesmee, Keilly, and Leslie actually expected me to get it.

"It looks really good on you, Cat." Nessie said. But I didn't pay too much attention to this. She was about as into clothes as I was, and had been saying virtually the same thing to whatever anybody had on all night. Even if it was hideous.

"You have such great legs." Keilly said enviously.

Leslie looked pleased with herself. Were it not for her motivational speeches and itunes gift cards, I wouldn't be jogging, and therefore I would have fat legs. So I couldn't brush Keilly's compliment off, because if I did it would be insulting Leslie.

I turned around in the mirror, examining behnd. Ugh, ugh, ugh. "I am not paying for this.

"You aren't paying for anything." Alice reminded me. "This is all going onto my American Express."

I'm as much for free stuff as anybody, but this was just a bit much. The skirt was eighty dollars. And I had already bought a pair of pink skinny jeans, six pairs of earings, and a pair of converse. See, what had happened was, I just had the converse when we first went to the checkout line. But while we were waiting there, leslie saw these shorts that she just _had _to have. Bit then she wasn't sure which size fit her best, so we all had to loose our place and go with her to the dressing rooms. And on the way there, I stopped to admire the skinny jeans. That was all. Just _admire. _Not buy. But Alice saw me, and, before I knerw it, I was in the dressing room right next to Leslie, trying them on.

About ten minutes later, we decided that we really were done. But this time, Renesmee saw this rack of scarves that she really wanted to check out. And it was so rare for her to show any enthusiasm for clothes, what choice did we have but to go over there and help her pick one out? And right next to the scarves was an earing display.

You can guess what happened next.

All my stuff put together equaled about two hundred dollars. When I found that out, I tried to put something back, or at least pay for them myself. But the Cullens, as well as abazillion dollars, seemed to have been cursed with chronic generosity. It was like in Japan, or those tiny little African tries. If you don't take what they give you, it insults them.

"Hey, you guys." Keilly had, in the three seconds since I'd last looked at her, changed shirts. This one sparkly purple and blue tye dye that braught out her eyes. It also made her boobs look huge and her waist look tiny. She looked really pretty.

Unlike me.

"Get it." I commanded, squirming out of the skirt.

"Uh-uh." Keilly crossed her arms. "Not unless you get that skirt."

Whatever happened to Hot Topic? I mean, really. Now, more than ever, I missed the ten dollar T-shirs and shredded jeans. _They _would never be selling an eighty dollar skank skirt.

I sent Keilly a pleading look. "Must I?"

"You must."

"Ugh. Fine. Here." I shoved the article at Rosalie, who was grinning triumphantly.

"You know," She said slyly. "You could really use a shirt to go with that."

And this was where I drew the line. "No." I backed away from then, leaning against the mirror. I was seriously considering making a cross with my fingers and holding it ion front of my face in protection. Warding off evil shoppers. "I will not. Its been like two hours. I think we've been here long enough, don't you Ness?"

She nodded gratefully, and, without a word, gathered all the clothes in her hands and went to the checkout line. For the fourth time.

Alice watched her ruefully. Then she turned to me. "You should have gotten it." She informed me.

"I wouldn't have worn it." I retorted.

"But I would have taken you to the bathroom, where I would have made you change into them. And then, on our way out, we would pass by here again. And you would have looked that much cuter," She continued, pointing out the doors and across the way, where the sporting goods store was. "When _he _asked you out."

There, just the leaving the store, was Ethan. He had changed in the year since I had last seen him, that day at Emily's. Or, you know, the year since I had last noticed him. Now though, he looked even cuter. He had let his dark spikes grow into waves around his face, making his brown eyes look mysterious and penetrating. He was also a good three inches taller, and a bit brauder as well. When he aw me, he waved.

"Cat," He called. "C'mere."

I looked at Alice. "What, you honestly need help with this part? Humans, I swear. _Go._" She gave me what I think was meant to be a gentle push in his direction. I stumbled, but thankfully recovered quickly, striding up to him in what I hoped was an indifferent manner.

"Hey, Ethan," I said smiling.

"Hey," he grinned back, revealing a set of pearly whites. "I haven't seen you since school let out."

"Yeah, I know. I've been really busy." I lied.

He nodded. "You still going out with that Hart guy?"

"Oh, no." I said quickly. "We broke up months ago."

"Good. I didn't like him too much. He wasn't good for you." He looked sincere, too, not like he was just saying that because I was no single. But like he'd really been worried about me.

"So, you said you were busy?" he asked.

I nodded uncertainly. God, why had I gone over here? I had zero experience flirting. Where was he going with this? And why did I never feel this akward with Embry, whom I was about three million times more attracted to than this guy, yet never got toungue-tied around? I made the mistake of glancing behind me, and saw Alice, Rosalie, Renesmee, Keilly, and Leslie all hovering around the entrance of Forever 21, watching us like hawks.

Friends sometimes can be such idiots.

"Well I hope you can find time to go out with me Friday night." Ethan said. "There's a new movie out, I thought maybe we could…." He let the thought trail off.

"Like as friends?" I fished, trying to get some sort of clarification.

"Not really." Now he was starting to look uncomfortable. "But if you wanted…"

"No. It's a date." I smiled.

Ethan smiled back. "I'll pick you up at seven."

"Yeah. Bye." I spent the short walk back to Forever 21 trying to restart my heart. Dating took so much out of people, I honestly didn't know why we bothered.

I expected my friends to all be ecstatic. I mean, it wasn't like I had much experience in the department, but I had always thought that when a cute guy asked you out, your friends were like obligated to make a huge fuss over it. However, when I reached them, the only one that seemed in the least bit exited was Rosalie.

"That's my girl," She beamed, giving my shoulder a comforting squeeze. Of course she would have been a maneater back in her human days.

This was not my usual dream. I knew that much. For one thing, my puppy hadn't started out as a puppy. And I wasn't a little kid. I was me, and my puppy was a wolf. And we were still in Gainsville. Also, he wasn't running. For the first time, he was still, looking at me with intelligent but unreadable eyes. He was even more beautiful up close than he had been when I was trying to get close to him. Yes, I know how stupid that sounds. How could a beast be beautiful? And I guess logically he wasn't. Powerful, strong, his coat was clean. But that didn't make him beautiful. However, that was what I thought of him as.

My unreasonable yearning for him hadn't lessened in the months since I'd last had the dream. I still wanted him, still needed him. But something felt wrong. I felt some kind of fear. For the wolf more than me. Fear of what, I had no idea. But it kept me from reaching out to him.

My wolf leaned forward, letting out a small whine. I felt a rush of warmth as I realized that he wanted me. Again, for reasons that I could not fathom, this seemed beyond my wildest dreams. Well, not dreams, since technically I was in one. But beyond my wildest fantasies. More than anything I could ever wish for.

My wolf took a small step forward.

I forgot about my gut feeling, that tiny voice telling me not to touch him. I reached out to him, fingers outstretched, until they came in contact with the top of his head. His fur was thick, rough. It felt better than anything I'd ever touched before. My wolf pressed upward towards my hand, leaning in to my touch. He needed this too. And, for those peaceful three seconds, everything was perfect. I didn't feel the fear anymore. No desire, no obligations. I had him, and that was all that mattered.

But then the three seconds was over, and the scene changed drastically.

The grass under our feet grew, stretched and twisted. It intertwined itself around me, pulling me away from my wolf. And as soon as I stopped touching him, the fear was back. Only it was about twenty times stronger. The grass thickened, wrapped all around me, growing huge thorns and cutting into my skin. I saw blood seeping through my cloths, running down my arms, but I didn't feel the wounds. I only pad attention to my wolf.

But of course that had changed as well.

His fur changed, turning brown and then disappearing completely, leaving only copper skin. The hind legs lengthened, became more muscled, then straightened up. The front legs did the came before falling limply at his sides. The claws, the paws vanished as well, leaving fingers and toes on hands and feet. He grew new fur, but this was only on his head. It was black and shaggy, and stopped after a few inches. The only thing that stayed the same was his eyes.

Embry struggled, putting up a much better fight than I had. But like I was with him, his eyes stayed firmly on my face. He was much more worried about my safety than his own. "Cathryn, run!" He yelled hoarsely, desperately. "Get outta here!"

Then, all at once, he stopped trying to get away, stopped trying to get to me. His yes, for the first time, broke away from me and traveled past me, to something behind me. His lips opened slightly, forming a silent scream. The agony, the hurt on his features was something I couldn't even begin to comprehend. I just knew that it was there, that it was hurting him and that it had to be stopped.

I squirmed, twisting my entire body trying to get to him. But I couldn't.

And that was when I realized that it wasn't a plant holding me anymore. I turned, and came face to face with Ethan. His mouth was spread wide in an evil grin, his grip much stronger than I ever would have thought it could be. "You can't save him, Cat." He whispered. "You belong to me now." He spun me around harshly, just in time for me to see Embry crumble, falling forward to his knees in anguish.

"No!" I screamed, bolting upright in a sheen of sweat.. But I didn't stop there. I kept screaming, getting louder and more desperate as they built into hysteria. I couldn't quiet them. All the fear was still there, all the horror.

"Kaaah..Cat?" Renesmee sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes. Leslie and Keilly had woken up, too. They crowded around me, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Alice! Rose!" Nessie called over her shoulder.

"Shh, shhh." Keilly, bless her, was best in this situation. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her, quieting my yells as they turned into sobs.

"Embry…" I whispered, shaking. "He-"

"It was just a bad dream, Cat. Not real." Rose interrupted, cross at the mention of a werewolf. Alice gave her a warning look as she reached out and stroked my hair.

"What happened, Cat?" Leslie's brow furrowed.

Fortunately, this was when I got a hold on myself. It took me a second to stop the waterworks, but I managed. " It's fine," I said softly, pulling away from Keilly. "I'm fine."

The others didn't look convinced.

But really, who could blame them? I had woken up at….I glanced behind me, looking through the glass. I had woken up at the very crack of daw despite the fact that I had fallen asleep only two hours ago tops, screaming and shaking and crying out the name of my twenty year old chauffer. I shook my head, trying to clear it.

And that was when I remembered.

The animal, the beast I had been dreaming about, been wanting for so long. The thing I wanted, needed, reached out for when I was hurting over Hart, was a _wolf. _A wolf who had recently decided to change into a human. A human that belonged to a pack of shapeshifters.

The person I'd been dreaming about, the person I had been needing for all this time…was _Embry._


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 35 Green

Claire had the flu. Not such a big deal, right? I mean, she was a kid, sure, but healthy, over all. Her parents had taken her to the doctor and gotten a perscription. Her mom was staying off from work and was caring for her in the best of their ability. I asked Cathryn about it, and she hadn't seemed especially concerned. Which was saying something, as Cat was every bit as protective of her as her parents. However, Cathryn, nor Claire's parents, could not hold a candle to Quil Ateara. The guy had gone bananas. He was missing work, spending even more time with her than her mother, and was constantly worrying about her. Jacob and I hadn't seen him around the house in a while, as he was caring for Claire in the day and sleeping outside her window at night. Not something I could really blame him for, as I had done the same thing recently, when Cathryn had decided she hated werewolves. I mean, it wasn't like I could be without her. Or stalk her or force myself upon her or whatever. I couldn't scare her. And that left me very limited options.

What I could blame Quil for, however, was the fact that he was shirking responsibilities when it came to patrol. The guy hadn't even had to stay human to do it, as Jacob refused to alpha-command anyone unless it was an emergency, and Sam didn't have the heart to keep him away from Claire. Something I could grumble about, but I wouldn't have been able to do it, either. I was capable of empathy, and if Cathryn was in Claire's situation I'd be just as bad. But the problem with this little arangement was that Jacob and I, as the wolves he had patrol with, had to work overtime. Now, I realize that sleep isn't exactly essential for me, not being entirely human and all, but it is very easy to forget tiny details like that when it is five o'clock in the morning and, for the past seven hours, you have done nothing but jog around not only La Push, but the Cullen turf-the new treaty had no boundaries-being forced to smell the burning stench of vampire and listen to the thoughts of the same person.

Wait. Scratch that. That could occasionally be useful. You know, when that person is thinking thoughts full of malice about the sole reason for your existence, it can actually be useful. Jacob hadn't meant to think of Cathryn, I could tell. he'd been careful to avoid her all night. But now, he had slipped up. Not in a huge way, just in passing, but I could feel the undercurrent of hurt and betrayel at her name. _What about Cat? _I demanded.

_Ugh_. Jacob seethed in silence as I read his memory. Renesmee, all in a tizzy about something Cathryn had done. I waitied, listening, as Nessie relayed the story of her sleepover. Cat, it seemed, had a new boyfriend. I concentrated very carefully on my breathing.

_Its that Ethan guy. The one she said was cute that one time at Emily's restauraunt. Remember? _Jacob asked me.

_Not really_. It didn't matter to me who was ripping out my heart and squashing it into a pulp, only that someone was doing it. And anyway, how was I supposed to remember all the guys Cat had mentioned to me and I had been irrationally jealous of?

I stumbled as something nerw occurred to me. Why hadn't she said anything? Accoding to Jacob-Nessie-whichever- She was supposed to have gone out with him tonight. I'd seen her plently in the time since he'd asked her out. Chances were, she hadn't said anything because she knew exactly how I would react. I would be angry. Overprotective. An all around duesh. Still, if she just planned on it being one date, she wouldn't have cared. She must really like this guy. I groaned internally as a knot the size of a beach ball settled itself in the pit of my stomach, making itself comfortable for its duration there. Which would last until they broke up.

God. I had barely survived her last relationship, how was I supposed to make it through another one?

Chapter 36 Bilingual

Cathryn's POV

Ethan had told me that there was a new restauraunt that he wanted to check out. What he hadn't told me was that the place was quite possibly the world's fanciest Chinese place. It had two levels, the staircase made of deep, heavy oak, just like the tables and booths. It was dark and spacious, the only lights coming from small lamps covered by some sort of red fabric, causing the place to have a romantic, rosy hue to it. I felt distictly out of place in my shorts and green v-neck. It seemed that evry one else that was there was dressed impecably, in just the sorts of outfits that I would relinquish my ipod to Cocoa before wearing. Okay, no. I woudn't do that. But close, anyway. However, if the tiny, asian woman that lead us to our both-in the very back corner of the room, otherwise known as the 'makeout table'-noticed my inapropriate attire, she didn't let on. She just placed our menues in front of us and scurried away, her steps being made smaller by the black kimono she, along with the rest of the waitresses, was wearing.

"Cool place," I said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I like to let people think I'm at least a little nice when they first meet me. Especially when that person is my future boyfriend.

Ethan, however, raised an eyebrow. "It seems a bit much," He confessed. "I didn't think it would be like this."

"Don't worry," I told him. "Its cool."

And with that, we looked down at our menues. Which was when we noticed this: that the menues? Yeah, they were in Chinese. I stared at it for a full minute, trying to make sence of the unfamiliar squiggles and dashes that made up my supper. "Ah...Ethan?"

"Don't ask." Ethan said flatly. "I can't read it either."

"Wonderful." This time, I let the sarcasm seep into my tone.

We spent the next ten minutes turning the menues inside out, trying to find something in english., or at least some pictures of their best dishes. But of course, their weren't any. So we put the miniskule amount of chinese writing we knerw to good use, carfully combing the pages for any symballs we recognised. It was really too bad that there weren't many dishes that involved the words rain, love, and light. After discovering that we desperately needed to broaden our foreign vocabularies, we ditched the place for the more familiar Mickey D's across the street for Big Macs.

Then Ethan called his brother-he wasn't old enough for a drivers licence, like me- and he drove us home. We didn't say a whole lot, he just turned the radio on and let the music fill the car up. It wasn't my favorite staion, or even a familiar one, as Embry wasn't entirely fond of Ethan's brand of music either, but it was sound. Better than the thick silence which I was sure would have eveloped the car had the radio been turned off. Not that Ethan and I weren't getting along. We were. But we didn't really have mutual friend ships, or even remotely know the same people, so after making fun of the Chinse restauraunt and discussing what we thought high school would be like, we pretty much didn't have a whole lot to talk about. But that was cool. I think both of us expected as much. We'd have more to talk about as we dated more, got to know each other better.

Ethan's brother pulled up to my driveway and Ethan got out. He opened the door for me. I was still for a moment, shocked, before smiling and getting out. Hart had never been polite around me. I had never really expected him to, to be honest. He had never been rude, so it had never been an issue. Still, although I didn't expect the act of chivalry, it was nice, all the same.

He walked me up the steps to my door. This time, I knew what to expect. We turned to face each other. "I...had a really good time tonight." Ethan said shyly.

"Me, too." I said, smiling because it was expected of me in this situation. But on the inside I was projectile vomiting at how cliche the words sounded. How many times had I heard that line delivered in movies?

He leaned in slowly, and his lips brushed mine. It was a slow kiss, and very gentle. The total opposite of Hart's kisses, during which he basically mashed his face up against mine and chomped on my lips. I smiled and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment. When it was over, I opened my front door and escaped inside, permitting myself a quick fist-pump. Aside from his kiss, which could have been a bit stronger and more original, the date had gone perfectly. Just like a date should be. And I'd teach him to get rougher.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 37 Busted

Embry's POV

It took me no less than four days to work up the courage to ask Cathryn about Ethan. Sad, right? Wait. In my defence, I wanted to give her time to actually go on the date, decide what she thought about it, give Ethan a chance to get in touch with her, ectcetera. And then, you know, I needed time alone with her, as I had a feeling this would be no quick small talk on the way to her art lesson or wherever she had me drive her. I finally ended up bringing it up in my back yard while teaching her to punch. She had gotten better at it. Now, sometimes, I actually felt the blows. Even then though, it felt more like a toddler's tap. But then, I wasn't exactly the best judge of her force, what with my superhuman strength and indestructability and all that.

"Cat?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Cat panted as she whacked my ribs.

"Are you dating someone?" I had decided beforehand that the best way to bring it up would be to just come right out with it. It usually the best tactic when dealing with Cat.

Cathryn didn't bother pretending that she didn't know what I was talking about, or that she thought that I would be okay with it. "All right, who told you?" She demanded, her already clenched fists going to her hips. But I tried not to pay attention to that. This wasn't the time for fantasizing.

"Not important," I wouldn't release Cat's wrath on a leach, let alone Jacob. "Who is he?"

"_Not important_." She mimicked.

"Very imortant. Have I seen him before?"

Cat sighed dramatically, and stomped over to my porch, where she sat down and stared fixedly at her pink converse. "No. His name is Ethan. And he's in my grade, so don't worry. He's harmless." She said quickly, trying to ward me off. However, telling me not to worry about her-especially when she was dating somebody who wasn't me-was like telling fire not to burn.

"Do you really think that you should be dating right now?" I pressed. "I mean, after what happened with Hart?"

"_Yes_!" She snapped. "Its been like three months-"

"Two and a half." I inturruped.

Cat shot me a withering look. "My point," She continued, "Is that I am over him."

"The fact that you had to get over a guy who hit you in itself is a big red flag, Cathryn."

Cathryn rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. The bruises have long since faded. I barely even think about him anymore. I'm fine. And," She added as an afterthought, "Ready to date again."

I hadn't, of course, planned on convincing her to stop dating Ethan. But it was still kind of a sucker punch to have it confirmed. It hurt, hearing her defend him like this. This, couped with my lack of sleep, did not put me in a good mood. "And what exactly do you plan on doing when he wants sex? Or starts getting jealous? Or needy? Or when whatever eother issues the little worm has start coming out? You're thirteen years old, Cat! You dated a guy who hit you.A lot. And kept you from your friends. It makes a whole lot of sense for a _kid _to jump right back into the dating scene after a train wreck like that."

"Oh, yeah,. thats right." Cathryn siad sarcastically. "All guys are demons except you. You don't even know him!"

"Oh, and you do? After what, one date?"

"Actually, its been two." Cathryn informed me acidically. "We went out again on Tuesday. And we've talked on the phone every night. And we've kissed."

I absorbed this, feeling more pain than any of her punny slaps had ever caused. This meant, in short, that they were moving fast. And that they were getting along. Well. Which made for a longer relationship. Not something I could very well handle, especially if it got her angry with me again, and I had to go another four months without hearing her voice. I inhaled deeply through my nose. "Fine," I said gustily, backing down. "I think we should at least be able to meet him, though."

Cathryn's eyes widened. "We?" She inquired.

"Yeah," I gave her a half-hearted smile. "Quil and Seth-and probably the rest of the packs-would have embolisms if they found out you were dating another dickhead."

"Is that a theory you're willing to test?" Catthryn asked me, grinning. "Because I don't know about you, but I don't think I would mind too much if Brady-"

I barked out a lough, unable to stay mad at her for long. "Yeah, I'll definetely look into that."

Chapter 38 Hostages

Cathryn's POV

'So," Etahn asked me, slinging an arm carelessly around my shoulder as we walked down the street. We had just come out of the movie theatere-the local one, the dirty one, you get it-and Ethan was walkng me home. "What did you think?"

"I think," I said, turning my head to grin at him. "That next time, I'm choosing the movie."

Ethan laughed. "Yeah, it was pretty bad, wasn't it?"

"Pretty bad?" I asked him, shocked. "_Pretty Bad?_ It sucked! With a capital _s_! I could have made it!"

Ethan smiled. "But you're more talented than most." He told me.

I ignored the cheesy compliment, just walked with him in comfortable silence for a few minutes. That was the way it always was with Ethan. Comfortable. Between hm and Hart, I was seriously beginning to doubt the existance of passion. Except with Embry. I'd probably see the fireworks if I made out with Embry. Too bad it would never happen. Which reminded me.... "Ethan?" I asked hesitantly.

"Mmm?"

"My friends want to meet you." I told him.

"Do they?" He sounded casual, but I heard a tence under current in his voice. "And who are your friends, exactly?"

"Leslie, Keilly, Renesmee, Emily..." I tacked the names off absent mindedly.

"But the guys?" Ethan pressed.

"Oh, right. Seth, Collin, Embry, Sam, Quil, Jacob..."I wondered why he wanted to know about the guys.

Ethan was quiet for a moment. Then, "The La Push Gang." He said flatly.

"The what?" I was confused. They weren't part of any gang....

"I've just heard stuff." Ethan told me, sounding uncomfortable.

"Like what? I pressed, interested.

"Stuff like...well, I don't know if its true or not," He added quickly, "But bad stuff. Like, they are real into drugs. Steroids, but the heavy stuff, too. Like cokain. Meth. And their girlfriends," Eathn was speaking quickly now, letting the words flow. "Its like, they never even had a choice. Like they're their hostages, or something. Like they own them. And the younger girls...I've heard rumors of child molestation. I mean, nobody's ever caught them, or anything, but have you ever noticed the way they act around people? So serious, so guarded. Like they've got something to hide."

That was when I'd had enough. Part of me wanted to turn to him and laugh. _Steroids?_Maybe they were just inhuman. And they acted like they had something to hide, because they did, obviously. Like they were going to go around being like, "Hey! We're Werewolves!" Yeah. Right. But a bigger part of me got mad. Really mad. How dare he make assuptions like that about people he didn't even know! And assuptions that were so throughly untrue. I knew for a fact that they didn't even drink much, and definetely didn't do meth. Or sell it, or whatever he was thinking. And Leslie had definetely had a choice when it came to dating Collin. "You're not seriously telling me this." I said, trying to keep my voice neutral.

"Well...you've gotta admit, they-"

"They what?" I inturrupted, my voice getting louder. "Love the the girls in their lives? Me being one of them, in case you've forgotten! Are tall and strong and good looking? Are really, really close friends? Babysit their neices?Because thats all it is, Ethan. In case you hadn't noticed, they all have jobs. A lot of them have gone to college. The council elders respect them. And if they're doing all that you accuse tham of, why haven't the police found out about it yet? Because if any of that stuff had even a grain of truth in it, the police wuld call for backup. They'da have been caught on some sort of count, eventually. But they haven't. Because all the stuff you just accused them of is complete crap. All of it."

Ethan was silent.

"This is my street." I said quietly as we turned a corner. "You can go your own way from here."

Ethan stopped walking, and caught my arm. "Cat..." He said softly. "I'm...really sorry."

"Yeah. You should be." I told him.

"I want to meet them." He told me.

"Saturday." I said curtly. "First beach. One o'clock. Be there."

Chapter 39 Game

Embry's POV

"Ahhh-Ooooommm....Ahhh-Ooooommm...." Quil Ateara was sitting cross legged n the sand, his thumb and pointer fingers on either hand connected in a circular motion. His eyes were closed.

I rolled my eyes. "What," I asked hiim, "Are you doing?"

"I am finding my inner Zen." Quil replied, keeping his eyes closed. His voice and breathing were even.

"Why?" Jacob demanded, coming up from behind me.

This time, Quil opened an eye. It looked up at us, annoyed. "Well, _some one _is going to need to be even tempered today." He said. "And it certainly won't be him." He nodded towards me.

I didn't respond. He was right, of course. Had hit it right on the head. My nerves were frayed beyond recognisation. _I _was frayed beyond recognition. It was Sarurday, the day we were all supposed to meet Ethan. Jacob, Renesmee, Quil, Claire, Sam, Emily, Nate, Leah, Seth, Keilly, Brady, Drew, Collin, and Leslie had all come to see him. Had been unable to see the insides of most of their heads, I would have wondered why they all cared so much. Biut I could. And I wished I couldn't. Their motives were not reassuring. They were more or less what I had been thinking: one werewolf lover, one abusive lover, the third was bound to be just as bad. Well, that was one of the things I had been thinking. Really though, it felt like my mind had been split into three equal horrifying worries. That was only one of them. The second was this: what if he wasn't just as bad? What if he was sweet? And treated her well, and did everything right, and really loved her, and, with the exception of myself, was her perfect man? What if they didn't break up? And that was more horrifying than the first. But the third was more about me than Cathryn's boyfriend. Because I was in a very precarious position. Playing the parts of both the supportive best friend and the jealous secret valetnine would be a hard line to walk. It would be all too easy for Cathryn to get mad at me. And there was absolutely no way I was going through that again. I refused to sit back and wait in the wings as she completely ignored me and threw herselves at guys who...well, who weren't me.

It was right about the time that I was brooding over this-for the millionth time-that the wind blew from the north, and I caught Cathryn's scent about a mile away, mingleing with someone else's. But for a split second, I pretended it was just her, and eveything was perfect. And all the stress didn't matter.

But then, of course, I actually _saw _them, and any remotely calm emotin I might have been feeling went out the window. For one thing, Cathryn looked way hot. She was whearing this red lace tank top that showed planty of cleavage and plenty of her midsection. Ditto with the short denim shorts about her legs. Over this, sahe was whearing an unzipped black hoodie that was about four sizes too large for her. the tips of her fingers peeked out of the sleaves, and the hood draped over one shoulder. it made her look even more delicate than usual. And, to top it all off, she was walking next to this _guy_ who looked-no, who _was_- a complete dunderhead and did not and would not ever deserve her.

Needless to say, I forgot how to breathe for about five seconds until Brady finally noticed and thumped me on the back.

Thankfully, as soon as they got close to us Emily and Keilly took over, being their usual bubbly friendly selves, therefore excuseing me and any one else from speaking. Thank God. I seemed to have misplaced my voicebox for the time being. Which was odd, because I hadn't gotten all shy like that since I'd been human. But today, for some reason...I just lost it. Especially when we all sat down on the little ring of driftwood logs that people usually hung out on, and Ethan draped his arm across her shoulders all carelessly, like he owned her. And she didn't even seem to like it. Her expression was bored and slightly depressed, as it always was. But I had always been able to tell what was really going on behind those unreadable green eyes. And I thought I saw a flash of irritation in them before she turned her head away. Some hope.

"-so much about you!" Emily was gushing.

Ethan laughed. "All good things, I hope." He joked. I rolled my eyes. What I cliche responce.. That had to have irritated Cathryn. I looked at her for reassurance. But all I saw was a shy smile directed towards him that hit me like a slap in the face. _And the score currently stands: Ethan-one, Embry-zero. _"So, how old are you, like seven?" I asked him coldly, glaring at him and enjoying his heart stuttering slightly as he took in mty nurderous expression.

All became silent. Except Quil and Brady, who were both laughing under their breaths. "Fourteen." Ethan replied finally, looking a little unerved.

"Wow," I said, smirking. "So you can't drive yet. How does that work, your mama takes you?" Ethan stared at me wordlessly. Cathryn glared at me wordlessly. Quil and Brady turned away to hide their laughter. _But wait! Embry quickly ties it up, scoring a goal for himself. One-one. _

Emily looked shocked for a moment. But she quickly recovered, and striked up a conversation with Keilly, who was sitting next to Cathryn. Pretty soon, every one was chattering away. All except Cathryn and Ethan, who were in their own little world. Oh. And me, who was spying on them. Too mad there wasn't too much to hear. Mostly just stuff for me to look at. It involvs Ethan wrapping his other arm around her, pulling her so close that her lgs are in his lap, and kissing her, first on the cheek, and then slower, on the lips. _Ethan-two, Embry-one _I turn away and look around in a panick, searching for some onwe to help. However, there was only Leah who wasn't occupied in some sorty of sonversation. She was just holding Nate, and staring into space. I kicked a few pebbles at her. She started, and looked around for the culprit. I waved at her. She glared, and kicked a few back. Which I ignored, like an adult. _Help Me. _I mouthed.

She smirked. _You owe me. _She mouthed back. Then she yawned hugely. "Whew!" She said, in a very un-Leah like voice. "I'm going to go or a walk. Anyone want to come with me?"

"I'll go." Cathryn volenteered almost immediately. She wans't one for sitting still for more than three seconds at a time. "You coming, Ethan?" She turned to him.

"No." Ethan responded, keeping his gaze on me. Good. He knew what was coming. "I think I'll just hang out here."

Cathryn shrugged.

As soon as it was made apparant that Cathryn would be going somwhere without Ethan, all of the girls stood up, eager to give her their imputs. Except for Keilly and Emily, who knew that they would be needed here, to use their creepily advanced people skills to smoothe over whatver scene that I was about to cause.

The rest of us whatched as they stood and slowly disapaered among the sand dunes. As soon as they were gone, Ethan turned to me. "You got a problem?" He demanded.

"Yeah, we do." I stood up and motion for him to come over a litte ways, away from the others. Not that I cared whether or not they heard. I just neede him to stand up. There was no point in me thretening his life if I couldn't get right up in his face when I did so.

Which I promptly did. "Listen, you don't know Cathryn half as well as any of the rest of us do." I growled, loving the way he leaned away from me as I spoke. "So you'll just half to trust me when I say that if you do a goddamned thing to her," I took his shirt colar when I said this, slamming him up against one of the nearby rocks. "I won't have to do a thing. She will have you for breakfast and pick her teeth with your bones. But that doesn't mean I won't." I pressed harder. It was getting harder for him to breathe now. His eyes bugged wide open, either from fear or supirse. "I f you put one toe out of line, believe me, I will know. And I will find you, and I will cause you pain. Got it?"

Ethan didn't move. He appeared to be suffering from some sort of heart attack. Not that I cared. "Got it?" I repeated, pushing arder and lfting him off the ground. This time, he nodded jerkily, lobviously scared out of his wits. I let him go. He scrambled over to the others, where every oe was either stariong at me loomking horrified, or staring at me and looking pleased. _Embry, wins the game, with a final score of two to three hundred and seven. _

Chapter 40 New Friends

Cathryn's POV

It was June. June, okay? Like, summertime. And yet it was _cold. _Well, all right,. maybe not cold, exactly, but chilly. To the point where I would have to where my stepbrother's hoodie and then zip it up over my clothes. When school was out, at the beach, in the summer. You understand its wrong, don't you? It just isn't right. Or fair. I mean, I had this totally adorable outfit on. An outfit that, I admit, may have been used for attracting the eyes of Embry Call rather than my boyfriend. Don't judge me, people.

It was these thoughts that were occupying my thoughts when Renesmee fell into step next to me. She was almost as tall as I was now, and way faster, so it was an effortless pace. "So...what did you think?" I asked softly. Normally, I discussed boys with Leslie, but she was deep in conversation with Rachel up ahead, and I didn't want to bother her. Also, Rensemee seemed so much morew grounded than Leslie...her opinion would be a bit more well thought out.

Renesmee was quiet for a second. I was used to this. She was not a ta;lkative person. Then, in one quick, fluid motion, she put her hand to my cheek. I stiffened for a second in suprise. And not just because her hand was so boiling in contrast to the wind, either. I still wasn't used to that pisture thing she did to people's heads. The scene changed abruptly. I was no longer lookingh at my friends. I was looking at Ethan. But...not Ethan, somehow. For one thing, the tiny zit on his jaw had become a full on breakout, with scabs and discoloration and the whole bit. And his hair was longer, greasier. And his nose was the tiniest bit hooked. There was nothing cute about him now. In addition to that, he was glaring blatantly at Embry, who was looking sweetly and innocently back. Suddenly, a halo appeared over his head. I laughed as the image disappeared and Renesmee took her hand off my cheek, grinning. "Embry is hardly an angel, Nes," I told her.

Renesmee laughed, and touched my cheek again. This time, I saw just Embry. Sitting on a cloud. With itty-bitty wings sticking out of his back. He wasn't whearing a white robe, though. He was shirtless, and for a few moments I admired his abs in Nessie's mind's eye. All too quockly, the image faded, and Renesmee removed her hand. "Seriously." I told her. "That little...spat, whatever was going on between them was Embry's fault. He started it."

Renesmee pursed her lips, but still said nothing.

"You don't like him." I guessed.

Renesmee sighed. "Its not that I don't like him, but...he's not for you, Cat. I just don't see the point."

"Its not like I'm looking for a husband. I don't _want _anything serious." I grinned, trying to relax her a little. It didn't work. She walked away, up to Rachel and Leslie. She inclined her head, and whispered something to them. They both stiffened. I rolled my eyes. It seemed llike even though I knrew about werewolves, there was still somthing I didn't know. But then, considering how well it had worked out last time, maybe I didn't want to know.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 41 Ruler

Embry's POV

"Hey, Embry." Cathryn greeted me cheerfully, some how managing to open the car door with her foot. Her hands were busy with a big white canvas.

"So you finished it?" I asked, looking at the canvas. This was her fourth art class, she was way due for a finished painting.

"Yep." Cat said cheerfully. I pulled out of the driveway.

"Can I see it?" I asked her.

"Sure." She shoved it towards me. I slowed the car down so I'd be able to look at it with out killing us.

"Its...great its...._interesting._" And it was good. Much as Ca hated Mr. Godhart, he was a good teacher. Or Cat had talent. The detail was remarkable, the colors perfectly blended. I would know, what with all the photograohy classes. My own much-loathed teacher had made me disect things like this one countless occasions. And the wolf looked exactly like Quil. But there was one thing.... "Okay." I said. "Truth question. Why is the sky...."

"Purple with pink poka dots?" Cathryn looked pleased with herself. I thought it would piss Mr. G off. And I was right."

I didn't bother trying to understand. "So you still hate him?"

Cat nodded ruefully. "But the dog is growing on me. Look, he signed the picture." She pointed to the top of a tree. Sue enough, there was a big paw print pressed into the leaves.

"He stepped on it." Cathryn informed me. "While the paint was still drying. Best part of the whole painting, in my oppinion. And it accents the whole wolf theme nicely."

"Yeah." I responded, still looking at the painting.

"Hey, Embry." Cathryn said after a moment. "I don't feel like being taught to hit things today."

"Is that so?" I inquired, trying not to wonder what insane plan she had figured out.

"Yep. I want you to show me you in your wolf form."

I bit my lip, holding myself back. My immediate instict had been to tell her no. It was way too dangerous. The thought of her ending up like Emily...I couldn't think about it. And I didn't want to scare her away again. Not when she was already almost gone from me, what with the whole Ethan thing. But on the other hand, it wasn't exactly like Cathryn was this delicate flower that would scream and cry and run away when she saw me. She wasn't an idiot, either. She'd keep her distance, and I'd keep my temper. Or throw myself under a truck after loosing it. And this was something she needed to see. If we ended up together-and we _would _end up together, I didn't care if I had to kill Ethan to make it happen-then she would eventually see me as a wolf. If was unavoidable. It was better for it to hapen now, controlled and planned, then later. I took a deep breath. "Fine. But stay away from me, all right? I don't want to hurt you."

"Pshh," Cat waved a hand dismissavely. "You won't hurt me."

Right. I wouldn't hurt her. Ever.

But if that was true, then why did I feel so scared once I'd taken her to my house and phased in the backyard? Or rather, the woods behind the backyard. Cat hovered around the edge of them, waiting. I could hear her heartbeat. It thumped steadily. I concentrated on the rythm, trying to calm down. She wasn't afraid. And it wasn't like I was going to lash out and attack her or anything. I even had Jacob-Quil was at work- spying on us from the window. You know, just in case. There was nothing to freak out about.

So, after a few seconds of analizing Cat's heart and trying to calm my own racing one, I walked back towards the house. Or at least, I started to.

"There you are!" Cat xclaimed, appearing in front of me. "I didn't know shifting could take so long." She tilted her head, staring at me. After a moment, she sighed in defeat. "So it _was _him." She muttered under her breath. I didn't ask what she meant. She had said it softly, under her breath, and I wasn't supposed to have heard it. Asking would have been an invasion of privacy.

Okay, fine. Mostly I didn't ask because I couldn't talk.

"You," She said, "Are HUGE. Bigger than Quil looked." I rolled my eyes. Of course she sounded _impressed _rather than frightened. "You know, In the picture." She continued. "But, you know, I think you're probably bigger than the real life Quil, too. I mean, you guys couldn't get too much bigger, right?"

Right. I was, out of the twenty-ish werewolves in both packs, only smaller than Jacob. Sam and I were neck-and-neck. Usually, that kind of pleased me. I was stronger, faster than a lot of them. Now though, it seemed like a fault instead of an asset. If I was, say, Drew's size, O wouldn't be as big of a threat to her. Not that Cathryn seemed to realize this. Her pulse remained totally even as she took a step closer and reached out her hand, hesitantly running her hands through my fur. "Wow," She said softly. "This is...weird."

I barked out a laugh. She had no idea.

After a second, I chilled out a little, nuzzling her neck. Cathryn laughed and batted me away. I ignored her. It felt good, too good, to be able to touch her without pretending that it was all casual. Without having to hide how much I loved it. I licked her face.

"Oh my God!" She shreiked, jumping back, still laughing. "Disgusting!"

I laughed again. Okay, so fine. This wasn't so bad.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 42 The L-word

Cathryn's POV

A rain drop hit my forehead. I sighed. I had known this would happen. When it is six o'clock at night and the sjy had been threatening to open up all day, the smartest thing to do is typically not go on an outdoor date with your boyfriend. However, if said boyfriend had been planning this after suffering through a torturous outing with your beloved but jerkish friends, you don't really have a choice. It was Monday, and the first time we had talked since the beach. Which was where we were now. And where I wanted to get away from. Tides, you know. Not the best place to be during a rainstorm. Another drop hit me. "Ethan." I said calmly.

"Don't worry," Ethan reassured me, squeezing my hand. "It'll pass." Thunder cracked over head just as he said this. Seconds later, a lightning both cut across the sky.

"Ethan!" I said, not so calm this time. The drops were coming faster. And I was wearing a white sundress. Ugh, I know. I was whering a dress. In my defence, Lizzie had found out that I was going on a date and had refuse to drive me there unless I let her dress me. Anyway, the point was that no matter how serious Ethan and I were getting, I wasn't too keen on letting the water drnch my clothes and have him see what was under them.

"Er..." Ethan looked around. I rolled my eyes. This would probably the first time he noticed that there was nobody else around. Except for, you know, the werewolves. Embry had told me that a few of the Cullen's friends were viseting, so they were probably working overtime. But it wasn't likw we could see them. and Ethan didn't know that they were around. "Maybe we should..."

That was all the encouragement I needed. I took his hand and dragged him, skirts flying, to the cliffs. Seth and Keilly had shown me this place once, where there was a hollow in the rock. Like a cave, if you will. I hunted around until I found it. When I did, I imediately ducked in, Ethan on my heels. It was exactly what we needed right now. Or at least, thats what I thought in my current state of mind. Looking back though, it had been a really stupid move. Like hiding under a tree, or something. Because it was a really deep cave, and those tended to have a tendancey to have people get lost in them or die due to lack of oxygen and stuff. And it was right near the waters edge. The water not rising up and drowning us in there was nothing short of a miracle. Not to mention that the people who had shown us the cave in the first place had probably done things in there that I really didn't want to think about.

But, as I said before, none of this occured to me at the time.

Ethan leaned against the rack, breathing heavily and looking at me in a not-quite-honorable way. I looked suspiciously down. Sure enough, the rain had soken through, leaving me in a just above transparent dress. I blushed and crossed my arms. But I didn't look away. Because Ethan was looking rather...interesting himself. His hair was sticking out in all these crazy directions, and under the copperness of his skin his cheeks were ruddy with exertion. This, coupled with the fact that his chest was moving up and down rather dratsically, gave him a somewhat maddened appearance. But on the crazed face was the eyes. And they were the exact opposite. They were a liquid golden color, usually only seen on vampires. Sweet, like butterscotch.

I liked butterscotch. Almost as much as I like Ethan.

"Cat," Ethan said softly, leaning in so that his lips were to my ear. "I love you."

Now. Most girls, when they hear those words, gpo completely blank with shock for about five seconds before soaking in what had just been said to them. After they have, they usually go all giddy and happy inside, so much so that they feel almost as if they might explode. And they think to themselves, _wow. This is what its like to fall in love. _Regrettably, and for probably the first time in my entire life, I was no exception. What I was thinking behind Ethans kisses was so pathetically teenage-girlish that it was puke inducing. And when he pulled away, the words on my lips did not suprise me. "I love you to.

Somewhere, off in the distance, almost to far away for me to hear, I heard a howl. The sound was the most agonized, hurt, hauntingly sad sound I had ever heard, even that far away. Like it was crying, almost. The sound raised the hairs on my arms, and I shivered, feeling sort of hollow behind all my first-love high. Being the idiot that I was, it didn't really occur to me that this might be one of the werewolves. I just thought that it was a coyote or a real wolf or something, in the middle of chidbirth or being eaten or something incredibly painful. Still though. I knew, in the itty-bitty back of my mind, that it had something to do with me.

Chapter 42 Late Learning to Fall-Boys Like Girls

Embry's POV

It was my own stupid fault. I shouldn't have been listening in on them like that. I mean, what did I expect? It was raining, they were teenagers, they were trapped in the same freaking cave that both Seth and Keilly lost their virginity in. I should have been on my knees, thanking God that _she _hadn't been the one to lose her virginity. Instead, I was on my knees and leaning against a tree and thnking about how much my life sucked. Because this was worse. This was way worse. I of all people knew that having sex had nothing to do with how much you cared about someone. I hadnt even known half the girl's names. But love? Saying that to someone? Her saying that to him? Yeah, that meant something. That meant a big something. And it wasn't fair. That should have been _me. _

Almost immediately after hearing her say that to him and screaming by far the loudest howl I had ever uttered, Jacob made me change back to human form. The rest of my pack couldn't take it, you see. They couldn't stomach that level of pain. _I _couldn't even stomach it. And that was when I had my head spread out all over theirs, giving everyone a peice of it. How in the world was I supposed to make it on my own? I guess I could sort of say that a loot of them had already had their share of heartache-well, only Sam and Jacob, Leah hadn't even really-but I didn't really care. I couldn't bring my self to think about, to care about anything. I was just trying to remember how to breathe. And that was in my wolf form.

Because see, in an animal's body, you are an animal. Animal emotions. As bad as I felt about Cat then, it was only the watered down version, the doggy aproximation. Human? There weren't words. As soon as I had fully phased and had yanked on my stupid jeans, I crumbled againt a tree and just sort of laid there. Not to say that I like couldn't find the stregnth in my wounded body to get up or anything. There just didn't seem to be a point. In anything. Especially not getting up and trying to pretend that this wasn't killing me, because I would fail miserably.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hey people!!!!!!!! As you may have noticed, I'm not real into authors notes and all that. But I'm trying. PLEASE REVEIW SERIOUSLY. Also, check out my new sequal to this story, Angels and Vampires. And then reveiw.**

Chapter 44 Slippup Realize-Colbie however-you-spell-her-last-name

Cathryn's POV

The first thing I saw when I wlaked in my room was Cocoa, walking in through my back door all casual, my dog following adoringly at her sdie. She looked like she owned the place. Even after all these months, I still hadn't gottne used to her crashing on my balcony. It was disorienting. When she saw me, she stopped and stared. Oh. Right. I was wet. And see-through.

"Cat, are you okay?" She asked me. She didn't sound concerned, though. More dreadful. Like she really didn't want to know the answer. Which she probably didn't. If anyone had a low tolerance for romance, it was Cocoa.

So really, I was just sparing her when my answer came out not entirely truthful. "Yeah, great. Why?"

Unfortunately, I was not a very good liar. My innocent reply only seemed to reassure her. "No. Somethings up. What is it?"

"Nothing, Cocoa." I said, stubborn as always. "You're being paranoid."

Unfortunatly, Cocoa had shared a floor with me for long enough to know my weaknesses. She disappeared out the door breifly. When she came back, my ipod was in her hands. She walked to the edge of the balcony, where it was still pouring, leaving the ground below soaked and otted with peddles in which my ipod would almost certainly fall prey to. She held it threateningly over the edge. "Okay, Cat." She said decisively. "Tell me what happened or the ipod falls."

I gaped at her. Surley...she wouldn't do that. She couldn't kill my baby. I needed that thing. Needed it like a drug. But as I stared at her and absorbed the grim determination in her eyes, I knew she wasn't bluffing. But that didn't mean I couldn't. "God so help me Cocoa, I will kill you."

"Just tell me whats up and nobody gets hurt." She responed calmly.

Unlike me. "You'll get hurt, all right," I snarled, and ran at her, making a grab for the ipod. Which she deftly dodged.

"Okay, Fine," I said desperately, giving in. "I have a boyfriend. His name is Ethan. He just told me that he loved me." A smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I relished the memory.

Cocoa stared. For once, the girl seemed speechless. I took advantage of her current shocked ate and snatched my ipod back, bringing into the dry safety of my room. I was a good thing I had, too, because my taking it away seemed to jog her, and she was back to her normal, evil self in a heartbeat.

Only, you know, I don't think that Cocoa normally flies into impassioned rages.

"Are you insane?!" She screamed, running at me and shaking my shoulders angrily. "Do you not remember what just happened with Hart like a month ago? Do you honestly want that to happen again?! God, what is _wrong _with you? Do you truly have no heart? I'll bet you didn't even think of Embry at all when you were getting all lovey-dovey with _Ethan_! You don't care a bit about how bad you are killing him!"

Now it was my turn to go into shock. "Um...why the heck would Embry care if I had a boyfriend?"

Cocoa let out a low, infuriated snarl. "Because he IMPRINTED on you!" She yelled in exsasperation, as though it should have been obvious. Or at least, she did at first. But as I continued to stare at her unfathomingly, she seemed to realize that I truly had no idea what she was talking about. That she had made a huge mistake. I whatched as she sort of deflated, removing her strangle hold and taking a step back, her dark eyes growing as wide a saucers.

"Whats-" But that was as far as I got. Cocoa made a run for it. Fortunately, thanks to Leslie and her freaky health kicks, as well as Madame Lexican and her wicked dance moves, I had no trouble pinning her to my wheelie chair. "Now then," I said briskly. "What is imprint?"

"Don't worry about it." Cocoa said casually. "Its nothing." Despite my horrific lying skills, I had always been very good at telling whether or not anybody else was doing it, regardless of the skill involved. And Cocoa was a very, very good liar.

"Yeah, right." I snorted. "Tell me what it is."

Cocoa's chin stuck out defiantly, blowing the innocence act. "Nothing can make me tell!"

However. Where Cocoa knew my weaknesses, I also knew hers. I opened my desk drawer-keeping her pinned to the chair with the other hand-and took a role of duck tape. With which I proceeded to imprison Cocoa on the chair, ignoring her protests. Then I rolled her into my bathroom., where I leaned her against the sink. Then I took out a small bottle. "All right, _Courtney," _I said, using her real name for effect and unscrewing the lid. "This is a bottle of blonde hair dye and I am not afraid to use it."

Cocoa's eyes widened. "You wouldn't." She whispered, horrified.

I laughed dismissively. "Of course I would." I assured her.

I waited. Cocoa said nothing. I shrugged and tipped the bottle over her hair....

"Okay, fine!" Cocoa blurted. "I'll talk!"

"Good." I said cheerfully, righting the bottle.

Cocoa bit her lip, deliberating. "I'm waiting..." I held up the dye as a reminder.

"Oh, calm down!" She snapped. "Imprinting is...well, a wolf thing, obviously."

"Obviously." I echoed, bored.

"It...well-when-okay. You know how Sam looks at Emily, or how Collin looks at Leslie? Jake looks at Nessie, Jared at Kim, Paul-"

"Yeah yeah. I get it. With adoration in their yes." I said quickly. Now that we were finally getting some where, I didn't want her beating around the bush.

"Exactly." Cocoa looked releived that she didn't have to elaborate. "Thats because the wolves imprinted on them."

I was going to need more information than that. "Imprinting makes the wolves look at girls weird?" I aske skeptically.

Cocoa grimaced. She hated talking about this, I could tell. "It just a certain girl. Their...soul mate, I guess you could say. Its like love at first sight. When they see the one that they are supposed to be with, they love her."

I blinked, dumbfounded. "Embry..._loves _me?" I asked, my voice coming out all breathless and squeaky.

"Yep." Cocoa nodded.

But...that would mean that my little infatuation with him was more than just a little infatuation. Ands that I had been blowing off my future husband for a wife-beater and a wuss. One of which I had said that I loved. When I didn't. How in the world could I have thought that I loved _Ethan? _Ethan wasn't...well, he wasn't....

He wasn't Embry.

My heart did a weird twisty thing as I thought his name. God, I'd really goofed it up this time. "Omigod. I'm gonna go ask him." This couldn't be cleared up without him. I turned on my heel and started down the stairs.

"No! He'll kill me!" Cocoa cried, panicked.

I rolled my eyes. Did she really think that her murder would upset me much? After she had been virtually nothing but a thorn in my side since we'd met? "Don't care." I called over my shoulder.

"At least untie me!" She yelled.

I stopped in the kitchen to get my cell phone and car keys. Okay, so I didn't have a licence. The police force around here wasn't exactly top notch. And Jake had taught me well. "Nope, I don't think I will."

"Cat! She screamed as she toppled downstairs, still tied to my chair.

I chuckled under my breath as I closed the back door and stepped out into the garage. I stuck the key in the hole and twisted, relishing the purr of the engine. Then I took out my cell phine. Yes, it was mean of me to break up with my boyfriend over a text message, but this wasn't what you would call normal circumstances. I smiled grimly as I pressed the _send _button. Then I pulled out of the driveway, squinting to see through the rain. Then I sent Embry a voicemail. "Hey, its me." I said softly. If we were soldmates, he'd be able to recognise my voice. "Meet me at the First beach by the cliffs as soon as you get this, okay?"

Chapter 45 All I wanted Sometime around midnight

When I got to the cliffs, Cat was already there waitng for me. She was leaning against the rock and not looking at me. As soon as I saw her, all the composer I had been trying to regain was lost. All I could do was ask her what she wanted and pray that I was harder to read than I thought. She looked amazing. Her hair was wet and falling over her face in loose shining waves. Her equally drenched dress hung across her body in juts the right way...but thinking about that really wasn't the best thing for my heart right now. It was already mangled beyond repair at this point, making it worse just might kill me. Which, admittedly, didn't sound like such a bad alternative.

Cat glanced over and, seeing me, stepped forward. "Its my turn." She said simply.

I blinked, confused. "What?" Did my voice really sound that raw? That broken? God,. I was pathetic.

"Truth." She elaborated.

Oh, yeah. "Right. Er, shoot."

She took a deep breath. "Did you know that Cocoa was living on my balcony?" She asked me.

Telling her that I had been under said balcony almost every night since she'd moved in probably wasn't the best way to go. "I heard something about it." I hedged, not sure where this was going.

Cat nodded. "Well, she told me that werewolves did this thing...it was called imprinting."

My heart stopped throbbing. Or, at least I think it did. I couldn't feel it. "Um...yeah." I said.

"Well, she said it was like...love at first sight? Like finding your soulmate?" Se said these things like they were a question. She wasn't sure.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. If I opened my mouth, I would probably start denying that I was crazy in love with her. Again.

Cat bit her lip. "Then she said...she said you imprinted on me." She looked up at me for the verdict.

"Thats not a question." I whispered.

Cat rolled her eyes, breaking some of the tension between us. I was glad. It made breathing easier. "Was she telling the truth?" She demanded.

Well, what else could I say? "Yeah." I told her. Nice. She gives me the chance to tel her everything, to tell her exactly how much I love her, how much I need her, how much I hate her stinking boyfriend, and I come up with 'yeah'. Brilliant, that.

Cat's heart stuttered. I looked at her searchingly. Why would she...why would it...unless I actually had a chance? "Cat," I said, taking a step forward.

She stepped forward to. We were so close now, we were touching. She stood on tip-toe and wrapped her arms around my neck as I knelt down and kissed her.

A kiss that was more personal than anything I had ever done in Port Angeles. It felt better, too. Everywhere she touched me, it was like she lit it on fire. Like I was being struck by lightning. Only I was pretty sure that either of those things would hurt. This felt great. I finally had exactly what I wanted from her. Now, impossibly, I loved her even more.

Chapter 46 The One

Cathryn's POV

Remember when I wrote about kissing Hart? About how it hurt, about how it felt like he was trying to eat me rather than kiss me? Do you remember later, when I wrote about kissing Ethan? About how I barley felt it, about howe it wasn't rough at all? Boring, almost? Yeah. Hart bit when I wanted him to kiss. Ethan kissed when I wanted him to bite. And Embry was so stinking perfect that I still get chills when I remember it. And trust me, anybody that can give somebody chills when their body temperature it one hundred and ten degrees has a gift.

Which was why, when Embry picked me up so that I could get to him better, instead of freezing up like I would have with my ex or my current boyfriend, I hitched my legs around his waist, greedlily pulling myself closer. And all that was going through my mind the whole time was this: If I could have had Embry this whole time, what the hell was I doing with guys like Hart and Ethan? I was truly the dumbest person that had ever walked the face of the earth.

Unforunately though, all good things come to an end. And this one came when we were rudely inturrupted by Cocoa, screaming, "FINALLY!" in a smug voice. Somehow she had managed to get to the beach still tied to my wheelie chair. The girl was amazing.

I raised an eyebrow at Embry, who rolled his eyes and walked over to her. But instead of putting me down before he did so-I was still attatched rather scandilously to his waist- he readjusted me slightly so that I was being cradled rather than stradling him. "I cannot beleive you told her." he said in a much stronger voice than he had used only moments before.

"Hey now." Cocoa defended herself. "She forced it out of me."

"No, you let it slip out. God, you can't keep a secret to save your life." Embry told her.

"I did you a favor. If it weren't for me she would be locking lips with Ethan right now instead of you."

"True. So with that in mind I won't kill you." He turned away and started towards his car. "Where are we going?" I asked him. Personally, I would have went with him into the mouth of a volcono, but it would be nice just to know.

"Sam and Emily's if thats okay with you. A bunch of us were going to hang out there."

I nodded unenthusiastically. I would hate to see Emily's gloating face when she discovered that she was right.

"Hey!" Cocoa yelled from behind us. "Get back here! Untie me!"

Embry rolled his eyes at me and turned back around. "I didn't kill you, remember?"

"Later Cocoa!" I grinned.

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No,"

"Please?"

"Cathryn, I'm not going to give in just becasue you keep saying-"

"Please?"

"Aargh!" Jacob threw his hands up in exsaperation. It had turned out that, instead of just Sam and Emily and Nate, their home had been filled by half of both the packs. 'Mirriors' was coming on soon, and Jacob and I were in the kitchen, working on getting the drinks and popcorn. Or we were supposed to be. But I had other things on my mind. Such as, what was the big deal in a few motorcycle lessons? I mean,s eriously. The guy had taught me to drive my Porsche. I could do a lot more damage in that than I ever could in a stupid bike.

Apparantly though, Jacon disagreed.

"Okay. You know what? Fine." I said, surrendering. "You won't teach me.'

"Damn straight." Jacob said.

I took a deep breath, then went for it. "Ill teach myself."

Jake looked up. "What?" He asked sharply.

"Just keep in mind," I went on, ignoring him. "That I am not the most coordinated person in the world, and the chances of me learning to drive a motorcycle without killing myself or at the very least ending up in the Er are very, very slim."

Jacob snorted. "And what makes you think I would care/'

"Oh, I don't." I assured him. "I'm just thinking about how Embry will feel when he finds out that his significant other is dead because his _best friend _refused to take maybe an hour of his time a week to teach her how to drive a motorcycle."

Jacob stared.

"What?" I asked innocently. "Am I wrong?"

"No!" Embry yelled from the living room.

Jaco made a very rude hand gesture towards his voice before turning to me. "You will be at my house at six tomorrow." He commanded. "I'm not waiting, so don't be late."

I grinned in triumph and gave him a salute. "No, sir!"


End file.
